by Flynn Eire
“How did we ever get to here from you storming in my office?” she mumbled and I had to agree.
I opened my mouth but then let out a massive sigh before swearing under my breath and then slamming my fist into the wall. “Part of me wants to say see, not all gays are assholes so maybe you shouldn’t be such a bigot and love your son because he’s awesome. But while I don’t think I’m an asshole, me cutting you slack that you got such a rotten deal with your mating has nothing to do with me being gay and that making me sensitive. My gift is talking to animals.”
“Ah, I have seen that change a vampire before. They open themselves up to understanding emotions the way animals do, reading them that way.”
“Could be because I’m gay too and more honest because I’m just not always worried about impressing every female in the room,” I argued, sounding more like I was pouting than anything.
She raised an eyebrow and smirked at me. “Or that you love my son and are trying to get in good with me.”
“Oh, no, I blew any chance with him already and I had every intention of nailing your ass to the wall for everything that’s happened to him. Getting in good with you was never part of the plan, especially with how much shit I’m going to be in for commandeering one of our pilots, jet, and flying out here to barge in as you put it.”
She bobbed her head as I spoke but then frowned. “Can you commandeer a person?”
“Not really the point.”
“Right, right, just never heard it put that way.”
“It wasn’t abducting. I mean, he agreed to take me somewhere, just didn’t know where exactly or why. I’d say that’s more commandeering or misleading might be better—whatever.”
“Of course.”
I groaned and rubbed my temples. It had to be the weirdest meeting of someone’s parent in the history of forever. And it wasn’t like I’d exactly forgiven her. I still mostly wanted to bash her head in… Okay fully wanted to, for what she did to London.
“You hate me,” she muttered.
“Yes.” I didn’t see a point in lying about it.
“But you did not deny loving my son.”
I blinked at her as I felt the floor drop out from under me. She was right. But I couldn’t think about that or whether she was right about my feelings or not because I didn’t think I’d like the answer… Not considering where London and I were right then.
I shook my head and scrubbed the back of my neck. “Doesn’t matter. He’s too angry at me for stirring all this shit up and taking the blinders off that someone was going to eventually anyways.” It felt good to say that even if it was to his nut-job mother, because I hadn’t liked London’s accusation. “Besides, he thinks having a relationship or being with someone kills the other person’s soul because of what you and his father have done.”
I narrowed my eyes at her and let her see how serious I was about this next part. I think she grasped it even before I spoke as I watched her swallow nervously.
“And you’re coming with me to do some explaining. He’s not a child anymore. He has the right to the truth about his own father and a chance to know what really happened with his own childhood, especially given you’ve already thrown him to the wolves and now just cut him off like he’s nothing.” She started to shake her head and I growled from deep in my gut. “We’re both old enough to know that people always find out the truth. He has a right to hear it from you, not someone else. Give him that.”
A miracle happened as she nodded.
8
“Look, I know it’s different than your guys’ training, hell, it’s different than my training was, but I really believe in the idea,” I explained as I glanced between Dimitri and Matteo, grateful that the two head trainers sat down with me and were really willing to listen to my ideas. I felt strongly about what I was trying to change and the reasons behind it.
“I don’t think we have a problem with your adding this to the program,” Matteo hedged, glancing at Dimitri who was biting back a smirk. That shocked me until he continued. “I think we’re sitting here baffled because we would have to learn it first. It’s never crossed our minds to learn guns so well like this.”
I smiled, thinking their response was why I felt comfortable enough to come to them. “You’ll know more than you think. And I wanted to do it after seeing how many guns were wasted and tossed in Seattle because something broke. We don’t have the resources that, say, the LAPD does because they work off books, off the record, off everything. But if people know the ins and outs of the guns, they’ll know which firing pins can be swapped out to save a weapon.”
“Okay, so basically you don’t just want it to be teaching them basic gun safety, shoot, clean, assemble and reassemble in crazy times? You want it to be basic gun safety, clean, assemble and reassemble in crazy times, and…” Dimitri trailed off as he glanced at Matteo again.
“Trip them up on tests we can’t even do?” his friend finished with a snort.
“I want them to know the weapons so well that I can have ten disassembled handguns in a bin and make them assemble them from that to working before they’re allowed to fire a gun.” I rubbed my hands on my thighs under the table when they both frowned. “Look, I haven’t been out in the field as many times as you both have, I know that. But even when I was a post-trans shadowing I saw weapons not fire and people get tripped up as to how to fix that like oh my god what now? And that’s because they’re so focused on shooting, passing the clock on reassembling, they’re not stopping to really learn the weapon as well.”
“And making them do this before they get the fun of shooting shit will?” Matteo hedged.
“I can’t say that for sure,” I admitted with a half shrug. “But I believe so. It’s a step, I hope. Firing a gun should be a privilege after achieving the knowledge needed to get to that point.” They seemed to be leaning in my direction so I pushed further. “I mean, even the humans have their right to bear arms in their Constitution, but the implication is there for anyone who’s not dense that the right is only there after they know how to use it so not everyone around them is in danger because they’re a putz with a weapon and now a danger.”
“Plus, that was meant as a wartime thing,” Matteo chuckled. “Man, those people really should have been more specific writing those founding laws. Would have been so much easier down the road for later generations and all the debates.”
“Yes, because people wouldn’t have found other things to squabble about. Our people don’t,” Dimitri drawled, rolling his eyes dramatically. Okay, I was starting to like these guys. He glanced back at me and shrugged. “I’m in. We’ll try it your way after you show me and Matteo how to do this so we don’t look like idiots in front of our trainees. We’ll have to put it in place for those already learning to shoot, but I could see it being a good deal for new ones coming in.”
Matteo nodded, leaning back in his chair. “Yeah, me too. And it’s really more for you with the pre-trans than me with the post-trans.”
“Except yours get more into sniper rifles and bigger weapons.”
“True. Very true.” He gave me a big smile. “They want to know when we’re learning grenades.”
“As soon as I get more. There were none in stock when I got here.”
“Shit, we were really riding low on weapons,” Dimitri muttered, his tone concerned. I felt a lump form in my stomach as I waited for one of them to ask me specifics.
“Yeah, we were,” Matteo hissed as his eyes went wide, focused on me. “Jesus, it was that bad, huh?”
“Right, you see auras,” I muttered, bobbing my head.
“Which I don’t think anyone told you because Drake isn’t a gossip so how did you know that?” He studied me very closely and I shrugged. He smirked. “Try again.”
“Not fair using it as a lie detector,” I growled, narrowing my eyes at him. “We were getting along. Finally I was liking people here.”
“What happened with you and Drake?” he asked, frowning
and losing the playful side. He sighed when he saw something in my aura. “Damn. I liked you guys together.”
“You can have a whole conversation with yourself and just watching how people react. It’s kinda creepy, dude,” Dimitri bitched, watching the air around me as if he’d done it before when around Matteo, wondering what it was his friend could see.
Yeah, I think I’d be doing the same thing if I was him sometimes.
Then my focus snapped back to Matteo as I caught a thought about Nate’s gift and what they thought it might be. Fire? Really? Damn, that would be cool. Then again, I got an image of Matteo waking up to the bed burning so maybe not until he got it under control.
“Where did you just go?” Matteo asked as he snapped in front of my face. “I’m telling you, something is up with him. I don’t think it’s seizures. It’s gotta be his gift starting. A weird one.”
“Seizures?” I asked, blinking him into focus. “Why would you say that? Just because I zoned out on a thought?”
He gave me a lopsided grin. “No, then I’d just call you distracted. Someone who has seizures is the only time I’ve seen an aura light up like yours can. It’s like every color all at once pulsing as if your neurons and brain don’t know what you’re feeling or—”
“If it’s not all my own,” I finished for him before I could stop myself. I swallowed loudly as they both stared at me with wide eyes. I wanted to melt into my chair, disappear right there before they pushed for the questions I knew that were about to come. Some type of interruption maybe.
I took that last one back seconds later when I saw Alexander, Helios, Drake, and a man I didn’t know come in with my mother.
“Oh good, there is something worse than answering your questions,” I whispered in horror as I got to my feet, my legs barely holding me up. I focused on Drake, not knowing who else could be to blame for whatever was about to go down. “What have you done now? Why are you doing this to me?”
“Because I care, London,” he sighed, scrubbing his hand over the back of his neck. “I get you don’t believe me, but I do. Maybe one day you’ll see that.”
“I doubt it.” I glanced away when I saw that saying something so simple was like punching him in the gut. Instead I focused on the root of whatever was going to unfold. “Mother, welcome to Wyoming or the camp remote enough to banish me to where no one would hear of my repulsive extracurriculars as you called it.”
I just about fell over when she smiled.
“I taught you well. For all my faults, I taught you how to play the game well,” she chuckled. “Remind them always they are on your turf, and if you are not sure who is on whose side, say something to remind them your side is the best to be on.”
Damn it. She was right! “Yes, you have taught me that,” I sighed, scratching my head nervously. “But really it was just a snarky lead-in to what in the hell could possibly have made you come all the way out here?”
“London, this is Nicholas Sutton, one of our warriors, Philo’s half-brother,” Alexander interrupted, nodding to the man I didn’t know. “He’s here from La Salvezza working with some of the post-trans.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. “Okay, hi, nice to meet you. Not sure what you’re doing here or why—”
The man gave me a soft, polite smile. “I asked to be included when I learned your mother had lost her mate and yet never had a problem with the break in mating bond.”
I blinked at my mother a moment, noting the way her cheeks slightly flushed. And then my gift kicked in. “Because it wasn’t a real mating,” I whispered in horror, having to lean on the table to stay standing. “It was a lie. There was no bond more than the requirement to bite.”
“You called him and told him before I could?” my mother accused Drake. “You flew me out here because you said it was best for him if I was the one to tell him, that he was old enough now, and it was the least I could do after what he went through at the Seattle camp. What was the point if you were simply going to call and snitch on me?”
Drake defended himself and then Helios and Alexander got involved, which of course Dimitri jumped in as well, Matteo after a moment trying to be peacemaker. Nicholas stayed out of it all, watching with what I assumed was more an academic curiosity.
“Stop!” I shouted after several minutes, not able to take any more of the noise or bickering. They did immediately, all staring at me, and then I realized I hadn’t really formulated a plan of what to do next if that worked.
So the truth came tumbling out.
“Drake didn’t say anything. I wouldn’t have taken his call if he tried. It’s my gift. It’s starting already.” My mother gasped and moved closer, but I stepped away. “No, I don’t know what it is, so don’t ask me. It’s not exactly specific.” I nodded to Matteo. “It’s not like fire like Nate’s. I guess there’s still layers there of what he might do, but you see auras, that’s pretty specific, or Drake can talk to animals and they understand him. Okay, easy to explain.”
“What have you been able to do so far?” my mother asked and I was going to give her a scathing reply until I saw the worry in her eyes. I hadn’t seen that from her often, but it always stopped me in my tracks when I did.
“Do? Nothing,” I whispered, staring at my feet like the last time I got that look. That was when the big family meeting was called to determine what to do with me in all my gayness. It hadn’t occurred to me then that she’d been worried for me maybe because I’d been so angry, but now, in hindsight, she could have been. “It’s like hearing and seeing without looking or listening. Maybe? Kind of?”
“That’s how you knew I was coming behind you to make sure you didn’t have anything else to throw at Ashton,” Helios muttered.
“That’s what you were going to do?” I challenged, raising an eyebrow. “It felt more like annoyance of wanting to squash a bug. I felt your annoyance and didn’t want to be the bug. And somehow I just knew where you were.”
“You knew where the Wyrok was when he was rushing to sneak up on you and you were able to stop him?” my mother confirmed, smiling like a proud mother I couldn’t remember her ever being when I nodded. “Powerful gift, London.”
“Uncontrollable one, Mother.”
“Control comes. Give yourself time. Be patient. We all had a rough time with our gifts,” she chuckled and a few others did as well.
“No, I get that, but I mean, it’s also hard to control when you’re not sure what it is. It’s not feelings only, but images, but not just images, but something. And yes, it’s when I’m upset mostly, but not only, and sometimes I just know stuff.” I glanced at Alexander and winced. “Dimitri hates it when you bring work to bed. It’s like you’re literally picking the other warriors over him when you’ve been going through a rough patch lately and you’re almost cheating with them in your bed. How do I know that? No clue.”
“Is he right, Dimika?” Alexander asked quietly as everyone else just about held their breath.
Dimitri frowned at me but then sighed and nodded. I understood. He wanted to deny it and spare his mate’s feelings, not do it right then and there, but he also couldn’t call me a liar. “I know it’s not the same, and you would never be unfaithful, but I cannot help the way I feel.”
“Nor should you have to. I simply wish you would have told me?”
“Tell you I hate when you bring the files of other men to our bed instead of paying me attention?” Dimitri snorted and stretched his arms behind his back. “Yep, that doesn’t show how much younger and more immature I am than you.”
“Oh, Dimika, you always come first,” Alexander whispered. Then he glanced at Helios. “We need a moment. You were going to take over this whole mess anyways. I see it in your eyes.”
Helios waited until Alexander led Dimitri away, the two of them talking quietly before he shot me a creepy kind of happy look. “He’s right, I was going to take over.” Then he came closer and something else happened that seriously made me wonder if someone slipped shit into my
drink.
My mother stepped in between us.
“Wyrok or not, whatever you are thinking, stop it, he is my son and you will not touch him,” she hissed, looking fierce in a way I’d not seen before. Hell, she was crouching as if she might attack.
“You do love me,” I blurted before I could stop myself.
She stood up and slowly turned around. “Of course I do. You are my child. I hate that you are gay, and Drake’s right, it’s time I told you why. It’s not been fair to you that you have been left to think everything wrong all these years because I wanted to protect you. There was no easy path and everything went so royally wrong.”
“Just tell me,” I muttered, scared because I’d never seen her act like this before.
“Somewhere more private with the counselor,” she said gently, glancing to the new guy. Okay, so they had already talked some. “Do you want Drake to come with us?”
“No, why?” I gave her a funny look and sadness filled her eyes before she looked to Drake and something happened in that moment. I saw my mother feel for me in a way I’d never had before.
Pity.
“There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m not a freak,” I growled, stepping away from them. “He and I aren’t together. He was a jerk to me just the other day. I barely know him. It’s not my emotional limitations that don’t have me wanting him to come with us. He’s started enough shit with the little he knew. I don’t want him involved in any more.”
“As you wish,” Drake rasped before turning away and heading to the drinks. Which made me realize we shouldn’t be doing this in the cafeteria at all. Meeting Dimitri and Matteo there in between lunch and dinner sounded like a fine plan, somewhere natural, relaxed even.
But now dinner was going to start soon and this was anything but relaxed.
“First, we need to discuss what’s going on with him,” Helios interrupted, moving closer. I started growling, not in the mood for his pushing. He shot me a stern look and raised an eyebrow. “I think you’re going to want to know what you are.”