by W A Rowland
“Hi,” Liam eventually got out, to which the group simultaneously started laughing.
“You just had your first run in with a were-cat clowder and your first word is ‘Hi?’” The Asian man chortled. “Steven, I like this guy, good find,” he said, slapping Steven on the arm.
“Lay off, Jax.” the short girl said. “If I remember correctly, the first thing you did was wet yourself.” She quipped then dodged as Jax swatted at her head. The two started running around the big Samoan guy who just stood there like he was used to being the wall for their play-fighting.
“That’s not odd at all,” Lily quipped sarcastically as Liam watched the slap fight that had just broken out between the apparently powerful beings. At least, he assumed they were also demis, as they were with Steven.
Liam’s mind raced with all of the questions he wanted to ask, like what the heck was a clowder? Why were they trying to kill him? Why are those two running in circles having a slap fight like high schoolers? Wait, were they high schoolers?
Steven laughed and stepped up next to Liam. “Liam, let me introduce you to the team.” He gestured to each as he spoke. “Jax, you’ve probably figured out. Sarah is the short one.”
“Fun sized!” she corrected while barely dodging a smack aimed at the back of her head by Jax. “And a clowder is a pack of cats, FYI,” She added.
“And the big guy is Akeakamai. But we just call him ‘Hand,’” Steven said.
“Very nice to meet you, Liam,” the big Samoan said extending a palm, that seemed to be the size of a side of beef, towards Liam for a handshake. Liam accepted the massive hand, shaking it lightly and completely understanding where he got his name.
“Ditto!” Sarah shouted, tripping Jax deftly and sending him tumbling headfirst into a pile of old paint cans in a corner. Lily chortled inside Liam’s head, which proved to be very distracting.
Everyone else laughed as Jax tried to extricate himself from the half empty cans and kept tripping. “I’m gonna get you one of these days, you little hamster,” he called out.
Sarah responded by sticking out her tongue.
Looking at the group, Liam couldn’t believe he was about to ask what he was thinking, “That was y’all out there?”
“Sure was!” Sarah quipped and attempted to pull Jax out of the pile cans, but ended up falling into them herself, eliciting more laughter
“But how?” Liam asked.
“Demis, Liam, all of us,” Steven clarified.
“Liam, focus on their auras,” Lily said.
He did and could see the faint white glow about all of them: their demigod auras.
He let out a quick gasp and then spoke, “So, who was the one shooting?”
Jax, who had finally got to his feet and was mostly covered in old paint chips, spoke up, “That would be yours truly.”
“And the really fast one?” Liam looked to Sarah who’d just gotten out of the can’s herself, but was surprised when suddenly Hand was standing right behind him.
“Boo!” the big man said, making Liam jump and Lily squeal with joy.
They all laughed as Liam got his heart rate under control again. “Yeah, most people figure Sarah for the fast one. Probably because she never stops moving… or talking,” Steven explained, which caused Sarah demurely walk over and kick him in the shin.
“Stop it!” she shouted, as Steven yelped then turned to Liam, perfectly calm once again. “I’m actually the reason you’re here,” she said.
“Wait, really? I didn’t see you in the fight. Were you invisible?” Liam asked in as serious a manner as he could muster with an adolescent girl giving him a death glare.
“No, not here, here. Here! In this room. I lured you with my mind,” she said whimsically. Poking at her temple while waggling the fingers of her other hand at Liam. “Also, I really like your guide, she’s nice,” the girl added. “We’ve been chatting since you came into range.”
“Wait, you what?” Liam asked, becoming very confused.
“Liam, really, pay attention!” Both Sarah and Lily said in unison.
“No… stop that, that’s freaky,” he said to both girls. Laughter ringed again in the room.
“What she means is that she psychically implanted directions to this basement into your brain while you were running for your life,” Hand supplied. “And since she’s a telepath, she is also able to communicate with everyone’s guides. Gets kinda annoying, to be honest.”
“Didn’t you notice her answering a question that you never asked earlier?” Lily pointed out.
“Hey, quit revealing my mystical secrets!” Sarah yelled and then kicked Hand’s shin. Hand just stood where he was, as unfazed as a Great Dane being attacked by a Chihuahua.
“It’s no fun when you don’t react.” Sarah complained, glared up at the smiling giant.
“Is kicking shins her default setting?” Liam asked Steven, to which Liam received a swift kick in the shin.
“Yes,” the rest replied in unison as Sarah huffed.
Liam was going to like these folks.
NEW FRIENDS
The group exited the basement after about twenty minutes and many, many shin kicks later. They walked up the street unmolested to a mid-sized sedan parked on the side of the road. Apparently, the small pack of were-creatures had gotten tired of looking for Liam and had moved on to better uses of their time. The five crammed into the sedan, Hand barely fitting into the passenger seat, and Liam, Sarah, and Jax sandwiched in the back. It was a tight fit, but they managed it with minimal grumbling. They drove for about half an hour before Liam saw a sign for Ashland City, a neighboring town. They drove a few more minutes on a couple back roads before eventually stopping at a large wrought iron gate.
“Home sweet home,” Steven said as they entered the gates.
Ashland City Asylum, a sign read as they drove by.
“Liam,” Lily started.
“Steven, this is an asylum.” Liam pointed out the obvious question that his guide had wanted to ask.
“Very good, Liam, you get an extra dose of the happy pills tonight,” Jax said humorlessly.
“Hush, Jax,” Hand said over his shoulder. “Yes, it’s an asylum, or rather it used to be. The whole place is a front for our group of demis,” he explained.
“Yeah, nobody expects to find a bunch of super powerful beings inside a nut house!” Sarah said and laughed, like it was the funniest joke in the world.
“Naturally, Sarah is part of the front,” Steven quipped and leaned forward to avoid the slap aimed at the back of his head.
“You’re just jealous of my abundant sense of humor,” she said and stuck her nose in the air.
“Right,” Jax added, “well, I hope your sense of humor is better than your sense of direction.”
“Yeah, wasn’t it you who got us lost last week? Four hours in the wrong direction trying to get to that restaurant opening,” Hand said.
“Ohh come on! It was one time!” Sarah protested. “Besides, since when do you just trust what I say?”
“You had a map pulled up on your phone!” Steven bellowed and started laughing.
“Not my fault stupid internet maps don’t know where I live,” she grumbled.
“Kid, you don’t know where you live,” Hand offered.
“I’m not a kid!” Sarah squealed.
“Ok, enough picking on Sarah, we’re here,” Steven finally said putting an end to the playful jibes.
The car pulled into a four-door garage and parked next to a white van with the ACA logo on the side and blacked-out windows. Beyond that were a couple motorcycles and what looked like a dune buggy. Liam crawled out of the car and looked around. His mental assessment of the garage was interrupted by a figure suddenly appearing next to him. It was the figure of a girl, maybe eighteen or nineteen years old. She had a Hispanic complexion and thick black hair that hung halfway down her back in a bit of a tangled mess.
“What the hell y’all!” she screamed. “Wait! Five. Onetwo
threefourfive. HIM! Who’s he?! Ohh god, IT’S HIM! WEREGONNADIEWEREGONNADIEWEREGONNADIE,” the woman spat out in quick succession without taking a breath. “You! Who are you?! No, wait! What are you?!” she said, not waiting for Liam to even open his mouth before jumping to the next question.
“Cindy, Calm down, Liam is fine,” Hand said in a placating tone.
“Calm! How can you be calm?! This is terrible!” She berated them.
“Liam, meet Cindy, she… doesn’t do well with change,” Steven said over the girl’s increasingly loud rant.
Lily made a Cuckoo noise in Liam’s head making him smile.
“… AND THEN WE ALL BLOW UP AND DIE!” Cindy finally stopped, face bright red, and took a breath, then disappeared, just as suddenly as she had appeared.
“Is she part of the front too?” Liam asked.
“Unfortunately, no,” Jax said.
“Hey Sarah, what was that last part? I didn’t catch it,” Hand said in a sidebar.
“Something about boiling in acid and blowing up. I kinda stopped listening,” Sarah said.
“So if she’s not part of the front, what’s up with her?” Liam asked.
“Not everyone adjusts very well to having their entire reality churned up and dumped on their head,” Steven explained. “But, according to the boss, she was already paranoid before finding a core, and this is actually a great improvement. I don’t remember the details, but we’ve all kinda just accepted that Cindy is a bit strange and moved on,” Steven finished.
“Ok, I hadn’t even considered that demigods could have mental problems. I mean, you think about demigods from mythology, they’re always strong and put together.” Liam trailed off.
“That’s the difference between legend and reality, not everything is so cut and dry. We may have impossible powers, but at the core, we’re still as human as everyone else,” Hand said sagely. “And not everyone can cope with finding out that there are forces capable of ending existence with a thought.
“Wait, what was that?!” Liam said.
“Well, time is wasting, and you still need to meet the boss,” Steven said pointedly ignoring Liam’s question.
“Wait, no, what about world ending thoughts?!?” Liam begged.
“You’ll see,” Steven replied grinning and led a slightly pale Liam out of the garage by the shoulder.
Inside the main building, Liam found what one would expect to find in an old asylum. Lots of white walls, people in hospital gowns, nurses in white jackets, and absolutely no indication that it was the home of a group of metaphysical beings. Steven led them through a series of doors and hallways before they came to a set of stairs descending into what looked like a cinder block basement. They descended the stairs into the gloomy darkness, and suddenly Liam found himself in a well-lit, clean painted hallway. The transition had been so quick and seamless that it took Liam several seconds to realize the difference.
“Woah! What just happened?” he said looking back the way they came.
“Portal. You didn’t think we actually lived in the basement of an asylum, did you?” Sarah chirped, happily passing by them.
“One of the others, a guy by the name of Hansen, makes them. Great security measure. Anybody tries to get in, he just moves the connections. Instead of in our home, they end up a few miles into the Gulf of Mexico,” Hand said, a little smugly.
“Right, portals,” Liam mused. “So where are we now then?” he asked.
“Underground bunker. Can’t tell you the exact location because I don’t even know. Just that if anything happens, we’re all supposed to head north,” Steve said nonchalantly.
Liam nodded and continued walking, not fazed anymore by the ground-breaking new development in his world. Underground bunker. Sure, why not, he thought.
“Could be worse,” Lily said.
“How’s that?” Liam retorted.
“Your ex could be here,” she said then started laughing.
“Har har. You’re not nearly as funny as you think you are.” Liam grumped.
“Yes I am, you just don’t have a very well developed sense of humor,” Lily quipped back.
Liam dropped the conversation and just continued walking behind Steven.
The group came to a large room with doors on each wall leading to hallways. Sarah suddenly took off and tackled another teenage girl, perhaps a year or two older than her. The girl, seemingly caught off guard, immediately sent Sarah flipping into the wall.
“What was that?” Liam stopped and gawked.
“Eh, she’s fine. Peaches didn’t throw her that hard,” Hand said.
Liam watched as the energetic teen jumped up and started talking to the other girl as if she hadn’t just been judo-tossed a couple feet into a cinderblock wall.
“Peaches?” Liam asked.
“Didn’t even faze her,” Lily added, impressed.
“Well, this is as far as we’re going Liam,” Hand said. “Got other business that we need to take care of.”
“By we, he means him,” Jax said.
“We means we, Jax. Or did you forget what the boss told you last time you skipped kitchen duty,” Hand said, sticking a huge finger into Jax’s chest.
“Ok, fine. But I get to dry!” Jax said and stormed off towards, what Liam assumed was the kitchen.
“He doesn’t get any better once you get to know him,” Hand said, then shrugged and followed Jax.
Steven tapped Liam’s arm. “Come this way, the boss will want to meet you.”
Liam nodded and dutifully followed Steven through a set of ornate double doors, taking in the whole of the room as quickly as possible. Inside was a lush apartment decked out in royal purples, reds, and blues. A large four-post bed with curtains sat against one wall and a large mahogany desk faced a window. Along the far wall was a sitting area with couches, chairs, and a very large flat screen TV mounted on the wall. On one of the couches lounged a large cat, pure black fur shimmering in the reflection of the room’s lights. Liam smelled incense burning in the room and the lighting gave it a lounge style feel. The cat turned a curious eye on the two newcomers.
“Kitty!” Lily squealed, mentally jolting Liam’s attention towards the cat.
Liam had a quick moment of panic, remembering the Were-cats that had tried to kill him not too long ago.
A voice sounded in the room then, distinctly feminine, smooth, sonorous and sweet. It was the kind of voice that one might associate with a lady of high society. Someone that spoke as if their very presence was a gift to the listener, and with whom the listener would probably agree. Liam listened to the voice, thinking absently that he had never before heard a voice quite so regal.
“This must be who Cindy was all worked up about.”
“This is Liam, the one I found in the city this afternoon. We just barely got him out before the Association got to him. Were-cats got his scent too,” Steven said.
“I see, I assume they were taken care of?”
Liam looked around but couldn’t find the speaker. Maybe she was in the bed behind the curtains?
“Wow…I…wow…” Lily said intelligently, listening to the full tones of the voice.
Liam looked to Steven, but Steven was talking to the cat. Liam’s eyebrows went up a little, as he noticed that the cat was eyeing him rather forcefully. As if it was trying to read his body language.
“We did enough to break their trail, but only that. The run-in was just bad luck, not the Association,” Steven reported.
“I see, well, that’s good for them. As for him, what’s his affinity?” the sonorous voice asked.
“I don’t know yet, he only found his core this morning. The only manifestation so far is basic telekinesis,” Steven answered.
“It’s strange that he should be found so quickly. Especially without any major abilities appearing,” the cat said.
“Sarah talked to his guide; apparently, he was confronted just after bonding to the core by a Timothy Cork, his ex-boss. Perhaps he has a connectio
n?” Steven finished, “She’ll fill you in on the rest tonight.”
“Excuse me?” Liam said awkwardly before they could continue talking.
“Yes?” the cat intoned, a little annoyed.
“But who exactly are you. I mean, other than a cat,” Liam trailed off, trying to not insult the obviously intelligent animal.
“Do pardon my manners, I forget sometimes….” The cat was then replaced in a flash of light by a woman with a regal bearing. She looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties. Athletic build with straight, pitch black, shoulder-length hair and olive skin. When she looked at Liam and Steven, her features were striking. Deep blue eyes, the color of sapphires, set above ruby lips. Laugh lines creased her skin and dimples sat in her cheeks, waiting to be used. She smiled at Liam, showing elongated canines set into a pearl white smile. Her whole visage emanating a distinctly feline charm.
“I am Bast. Welcome to my home,” she said with a warm smile.
“Bast? Like the Egyptian cat god?” Liam asked.
“No, not like Bast, The Bast,” Steven corrected.
“Wait, then that would make you…”
“Around 5,000 years old, give or take a century. I rather stopped counting after 800,” she said smiling.
“Holy shit…” Liam breathed out.
“Didn’t James tell you?” Bast asked.
“James?” Liam replied.
“Yes, you know, little old man. A bit on the crazy side. Likes to hit people with his cane,” Bast said.
“Oh, you mean Joshua!” Liam said finally.
“Is that what he’s calling himself these days? I swear he picks up a new name so often; I don’t know why I even try. Every decade, he’s going by something new,” Bast grumbled. “Well, being a crazy old man aside, he normally tells people about the perks of being a demigod. Like immortality.”
“Yeah, I guess he did mention something about that,” Liam said, looking down as the floor in thought. “It just hadn’t registered just what that means though.”
“Yes, well, immortality is nothing to scoff at, I promise you. Do the same thing for a century or two and you tend to get bored easily,” she said.