Owl

by M. Raiya

  Clinging to Vin to stay upright, I shouted over everyone, “Stop it! This is all a misunderstanding!” I put some power behind my voice, and silence fell again.

  “Now,” I said, “Vin and I would like five minutes of privacy with his parents. No one is going to do anything violent.”

  “Well,” Priscilla said, “if that’s what you want, dear, do the two of you agree?”

  “Please,” Vin said, looking back and forth between his parents.

  They looked at each other, and at last, Coleen nodded. “I want to hear what this man has to say.”

  “Fine,” Jack snapped, “but only for five minutes, and then we’re going.”

  A final burst of power, and the medical staff headed out. Priscilla wouldn’t leave until I was back in bed, and she made a great deal of fuss making sure my IV line was still placed properly. She gave Vin a look that meant he was to call her if I became distressed for any reason.

  A soon as she was gone, Coleen bent and picked up the feather that had fallen to the floor. She pointed it at me. “Would you explain this?”

  I liked that she asked, instead of demanded. I would have answered either way, but it made a difference. “I am an owl shifter,” I said so quietly that they had to move closer to listen. “I live in the swamp near your home.” I paused, then answered the question she hadn’t asked. “I met your son a few weeks ago, accidently. Since then, well, things have developed between us.”

  Jack sputtered. I’d just given him a shit ton to deal with.

  “Why?” Coleen asked.

  Before I could start figuring out which aspect of everything she was questioning, Vin jumped in. “Because I love him too.”

  Coleen stared at Vin, face unreadable.

  God, I thought, what a way to come out to his parents.

  Jack said, “We can’t believe what we can’t see.”

  I assumed he was still on the “owl shifter” bit, not the “falling in love” bit, since I couldn’t imagine he wanted Vin and me to kiss right now.

  “Well,” I said, “I can’t exactly shift to prove it.” I gestured around, taking note of the IV line disappearing under the collar of my gown. “So if you can take it as a reasonable assumption and go with that for now, we’d appreciate it.” I softened my tone. “I completely understand your reaction, by the way.”

  “This is simply ridiculous,” Jack said, shaking his head at me. “I don’t even have words for this. How old are you?”

  “Jack,” Coleen said, but he ignored her.

  “It’s your choice to accept the truth, or not,” I said. “Again, I thank you for getting me to the vet’s that night. Without your help I probably would have died.” I paused. “Because I owe you that debt, I am honoring you with the truth. It is not something I do often, or lightly. I ask that you do not share this with anyone.” I hesitated, then answered his question. “I am nineteen.”

  “So young,” Coleen whispered.

  Jack snorted derisively. “Old enough to know better. Believe me, I won’t tell anyone, because I’m quite happy to pretend we never met. Vin, I think you’ve made a mistake here.”

  “Jack,” Coleen said again, the warning in her voice growing stronger. She cleared her throat. “We’ve always known you’re gay, dear. I just don’t think this is the right….” She gestured to me helplessly.

  “Exactly,” Jack said. “This guy is clearly taking advantage of Vin’s innocence and youth, probably just to get at your—our—money. It’s so obvious what’s going on here. Vin saves an owl, it goes to rehab, and Vin goes down to visit it. Seeing his chance, this guy comes running out of the woods, scares the owl away, and somehow convinces Vin that he was the owl. I’ll bet he slipped something into Vin’s water bottle first.” Jack pointed at the feather Coleen still held. “He’s got a stash of those already to take us in with. If we hadn’t shown up, the next thing we would have gotten was a ransom note for our son.”

  I controlled my anger. I wanted to point out that I must have desired Coleen’s money awfully badly to give myself the exact same injuries the owl had, and a case of sepsis to go along with them, but I held back. I wasn’t going to win by allowing Jack to engage me in his arguments.

  “So I’m done here,” he said. “And you should be glad I’m not pressing charges against you.”

  I bowed my head slightly. “As I said, I understand how you feel. Acceptance and understanding aren’t things that happen all at once. But you’ll have time, because Vin and I are going to stay together.”

  I wanted to shoot Vin a glance to make sure he was still on board with this, but I didn’t want his father to think I had any doubts. But did I have the right to assume Vin would go against his father’s wishes, now that his father had put his feelings out there so clearly?

  I was about to shoot Vin a glance anyway when he said in a low voice, full of hurt, “Dad, please trust me.”

  A deep surge of love filled me.

  Jack frowned. “How can you be so gullible?”

  “I saw him in owl form first,” Vin said quietly. “He was doing things no real owl could. Once he explained, it all fit.”

  I shifted uncomfortably. I really didn’t want to get into why I had revealed myself to Vin. That was too much for right now, but I was afraid that’s what Jack would ask next. My back was starting to really hurt. Jumping out of bed hadn’t helped it any. Nor had the burst of power I’d used. I felt vaguely queasy and not sure I could keep going under this pressure much longer.

  Jack turned to Coleen. I knew this was crucial. So far, she seemed a little more accepting of this situation than he was, but then again, she hadn’t really declared herself either way. I knew Jack tended to defer to her, but this might be the one time he held to his principals. My heart went out to him. At least they’d been okay with the gay thing. My head started to ache.

  Coleen put her hand on Jack’s arm. “Come talk to me outside,” she said. “We’ll be right back,” she added to us.

  “Fine,” Jack muttered under his breath and followed her out.

  Vin and I looked at each other. “I’m sorry,” we both said at the same time, and then we laughed awkwardly.

  “I couldn’t not tell them,” he said and kind of shrugged.

  “It’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s going to make everything worse for you. And you probably think I’ll blab it all over school when we get back.”

  I snorted and shook my head. “I’m sorry I’m putting you in a position between your parents and me. But at least they’re okay with you being gay. You really didn’t know they knew?”

  He shook his head. “No clue. I’m kinda stunned, to be honest.” He leaned down and gave me a light kiss.

  “You were amazing, you know,” he said.

  “I just don’t want you to get ripped apart, Vin.” I reached up and touched his hair. “I think your parents will come around, honestly.”

  He snorted. “You’ve seen us.”

  “We just need to be patient. I’m a long way outside of their normal.” I caressed his right ear lightly, fingering the lobe. “There are all different kinds of close, Vin. Treasure all the love you can.”

  He covered my hand with his. “I don’t think most guys would have handled that the way you did. But then, you aren’t most guys, for sure.”

  “No, I’m not.” I sighed. “And you aren’t, either.”

  I felt him swallow hard. “I felt terrible, but I couldn’t not tell them about you. It was weird, almost as if my mother knew. My father was just being himself, but she—she finally said, ‘Vin, it’s not about the guy, it’s about the owl, isn’t it?’ And then I told her they were the same. My father went off the deep end and charged up here. This is so not what you need right now.”

  “It is very much what I need right now,” I said. “It’s part of life, and I am soooo glad to be alive.”

  He gave a sniff. Before he could answer, the door slid open, and his parents came back around the curtain. Jac
k kept his eyes on the floor, but Coleen looked at me with a quiet smile and moved cautiously to the foot of my bed. “Gabriel. I apologize if we upset you. Can you bear with us while we get used to all this?”

  I met her gaze. “Thank you so much,” I whispered.

  She smiled faintly and then looked pointedly at Jack.

  He kept his gaze on the floor. Shit, I thought.

  Vin suddenly crossed the floor to him. “Dad,” he said in a low voice. “You’re always there when I need you. And I really need you right now.”

  Jack stood still a long moment. Vin wasn’t breathing. Then he looked up, and the anger was gone, and just worry was there. “All right. This isn’t real to me yet, so you’re going to have to help me.”

  Vin nodded, shaking a little.

  There was a moment of awkward silence, which I broke by suddenly realizing my nausea was getting a whole lot worse. I croaked out Vin’s name, he took one look at me and lunged for the basin on the counter. He got it to me just in time. The next thing I knew, Vin’s parents were out of the room, and Priscilla was laying my head back and putting the oxygen mask over my face and taking my blood pressure. Then I passed out.

  WHEN I surfaced, I felt my anchor—Vin holding my hand. I blinked my eyes open and focused blearily on him. His parents were sitting quietly on the other side of my bed. Vin brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. “You okay?” he whispered.

  I nodded, not having the energy to speak.

  “Priscilla says it’s normal to relapse a little after you exercise,” he said. “Just lie quietly. Breathe deep.”

  I nodded again. I was pretty sure that using my magic was what had done it. I’d needed to calm people down and not start a circus in the hospital with Jack telling everyone I was insane. Everything seemed quiet now, so I let myself slip back down into a doze.

  Above me I heard Vin talking softly.

  “Riel’s in trouble with his kind,” he was saying. “Three years ago he broke one of their shifter laws by changing form in front of some human guys who were bullying a friend of his. He drove them off and probably saved his friend’s life. But he hurt them badly—he scarred their faces and may have blinded one of them.”

  Jack made a grunting sound, which I couldn’t tell was in support of my actions or not.

  Vin went on quickly. “Riel’s grandfather is the leader of his group, and he handed down their most severe punishment—he made Riel take owl form and implanted something called an elan in his back to keep him that way. Then he banished Riel for life. He’s shunned, which means no one can have any contact with him, or else face the same fate. His grandfather is very powerful.”

  Coleen gasped slightly. “What about his parents?”

  “He doesn’t talk about them much. They have to obey their leader too. They run a small boat-building business in New York. His mother does the business end, and his father does the building. Probably they have people working for them. I don’t know. His father had a boating accident before Riel was born that left him with mental impairment.”

  “How long ago did Gabriel leave?” Coleen asked.

  “Three years ago.”

  “Oh, his poor parents.”

  “Yeah. It’s hard to imagine. But he’s been living alone in a dead tree in the swamp near our house ever since. Until he accidently dropped the dead squirrel on my head.”

  “But how did he end up in your room?” Jack asked. I only heard curiosity in his voice, not accusation any longer.

  “I was having a bad night,” Vin said quietly. “Just, you know, worrying about after graduation and stuff. He sensed it. I guess he was having a lonely night too. So he flew in through the window, only the screen didn’t slow him down enough, and he knocked himself out on the wall. He’s kind of a klutz,” he added fondly.

  Jack snorted. I almost sat up and protested, but Vin was doing too good a job explaining everything so I didn’t.

  “Well, I put him outside. After he woke up, he flew back in. He realized that he could take a pencil and push keys on my laptop, and we began to communicate.”

  “How long has this been going on?”

  “Just a few days before the accident.”

  “Oh, honey,” Coleen said. “You should have told us.”

  “I was going to. That night, right before the attack, when I was walking up to the porch, I’d made up my mind I was going to talk about—stuff. But then the great horned owl attacked Riel, and everything went crazy.”

  That was a good description, I thought.

  “Anyway, the vet apparently removed the elan when he was cleaning the wounds. Riel didn’t even realize he could shift again until I came down to see him, and well, here we are.”

  There was a long pause. I knew I should wake myself up and start taking part in it, but it was so nice to lie still and hold Vin’s hand and let someone else worry for a while.

  “So, you were right that he’s in trouble,” Jack said.

  I felt Vin nod. “We don’t know what his grandfather is going to do next. We haven’t heard anything from his family yet, but Riel’s pretty sure they know he’s in human form again.”

  “Oh my God,” Coleen said. “His grandfather might force him back into owl form?”

  “That doesn’t seem right,” Jack said.

  I was impressed. I’d expected him to take the line that the law was the law.

  “Riel thinks he would.” I felt Vin shift position and knew he was pulling the damn guitar pick out of his pocket. “This is what the vet took out of Riel’s back.”

  “It looks like a guitar pick,” Coleen said.

  “Yeah. It’s not one of mine. I think Riel’s grandfather put it in him magically and told him it was an elan. Riel’s been taught all his life that his grandfather was all powerful, so he believed he couldn’t change.”

  “Huh,” Jack said.

  “And,” Vin went on, “I don’t think that great horned owl was really an owl. Even the vet thought the attack was unusual. I think she was somebody Riel’s grandfather sent after him with the excuse that he had revealed himself to humans again.”

  “What does Gabriel think of all this?”

  Again, I almost answered, but I held still to see what Vin would say.

  “I think part of him believes his grandfather is within his rights. I think part of him is really worried that I’m right, and that means he’s got to go back to his clan and try to convince them that his grandfather has been lying to them all.”

  Yup, he had me figured out.

  “Huh,” Jack said again. “Seems like Gabriel needs a good lawyer.”

  That, I thought, was a classic Jack response.

  “Once you get your degree, maybe Gabriel will hire you.”

  I felt the tension in Vin’s grip. So he hadn’t had the opportunity to tell them yet.

  “You don’t believe me,” he said.

  “Well,” Jack said, “you’ve got to admit, it’s a lot to swallow.”

  Vin clenched my hand even harder.

  “No, no, I’ll buy the owl bit,” Jack said. “It does seem like you’ve got a pretty good case for that, seeing’s how we did have an owl in the back seat of our car with injuries just like this young man’s. And, as your mother told me, all this yoga and open mindfulness and what have you all say there is more to our world than we know. I’m okay with that. I just have trouble with the grandfather bit. I understand that he has secrets to keep, but what he did to his grandson seems a bit harsh. It’s hard to believe that he’d send another owl after Gabriel too. It seems like the best thing we can do is stay out of it.”

  I noticed he didn’t add the obvious. He didn’t want to accept that my life was in danger, because that would mean that his son’s life was in danger too. At least he didn’t think we should all troop off and confront my grandfather. No one was going to like me bringing three humans who knew about us home. Even bringing Vin home was not something I was comfortable with, though I knew he was going to disagree with
that when it got closer.

  “Well, seems like the first thing to do is make sure Gabriel gets well,” Coleen said. “And I think we need to go and let him really get some sleep.”

  Vin gasped faintly and looked down at me.

  Caught, I opened my eyes and smiled up at him.

  “You were awake?” he demanded.

  I shrugged. “Not really. Most of the time. You did fine.” I raised his hand to my lips and kissed him. Then I focused on his parents. “Since we’re in total disclosure mode, there’s one other thing, and I don’t think Vin even knows it.” I hesitated, then said, “Magic. Sort of extra abilities beyond being able to shift. It’s pretty rare. My grandfather has it, and so do I. That’s how I created the feather I gave you. It’s not something I use often for a lot of reasons, most especially because it takes a lot of energy. But there may be a connection between it and why my grandfather banished me.”

  “What do you mean?” Vin asked quietly.

  “When a leader dies, a new one is chosen from those who have magic. As far as I know, I’m the only option right now. I can’t believe my grandfather would feel threatened by me, but….” I shrugged. “Just something I was thinking about.”

  There was silence. I guess in the big scheme of things, accepting that I had magic wasn’t that big a deal for any of them. If they could believe a guy could turn into an owl, everything else followed suit.

  “Well,” Coleen said. “You need sleep more than anything right now. If my son is serious about bringing an owl into the family, I’m going to insist it’s a healthy one.” She stood up. “Come on, let’s get some coffee in the cafeteria.”

  “Give me your grandfather’s name,” Jack said. “I’ll look into him. Discreetly, of course.” Then he paused. “Unless you’re going to just be a good little owl.”