Chameleon (Supernaturals)

by Kelly Oram

  I think we all knew he was lying.

  “Tell me the truth right now, or I’m leaving too.”

  “Russ, please,” Alex begged. “Let it alone.”

  “Fine.”

  Russ walked over to the car and grabbed his duffel out of it. “Last chance,” he said to Alex.

  Alex hesitated long enough that Russ said, “Thanks a lot,” and disappeared.

  Alex finally cracked. “Your mother is dead, Russ,” he yelled out to the open air. “She didn’t leave us. She’s dead, and it’s because of the council.”

  Russ dropped his cloaking spell. He hadn’t moved even a step. “What?”

  Without thinking I ran to him and threw my arms around him and we sank to the ground together. He didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see me still there. Alex looked relieved to see me though and muttered, “Thank the Creator.”

  Alex started to walk over to us but whatever looks we both gave him made him stop short. He began pacing in front of us as he unwillingly launched into his tale. “I held the warlock seat on the council for seventeen years. The current Supreme High Councilor came into the position when his grandfather died three years into my service. Being the youngest two people to ever sit on the council, and being both from legendary warlock families, we developed a strong relationship. I became his most trusted confidant.”

  “You and the Supreme High Councilor were BFF’s?” I asked. I couldn’t picture a world where that was possible.

  Alex chuckled at my shock. “We were. Only he was just Jacque Valois to me then.”

  “Valois?” I asked. “Of the House of Valois in France who fought the war against the humans with the Oracle?”

  “The very same. The Valois family stayed in France long after succeeding the throne. It was Jacque’s grandfather who moved the family to New York during World War II and reinstated the council in America since over the centuries most of the supernaturals had migrated here.”

  Gabriel came to join Russ and me and asked, “What happened? What was your falling out?”

  Alex smiled, but the look in his eyes was distant. “I met Russ’s mother.”

  “Was it a forbidden love?” I asked, completely caught up in the story. “Or, I know! You and Jacque Valois fell in love with her and she chose you.”

  “Always such a romantic, Dani,” Alex said. “It actually was a forbidden love of sorts, because Kate was human.”

  I was surprised by the reasoning. “Supernaturals aren’t allowed to get involved with humans?”

  “It’s not strictly forbidden, but it’s definitely frowned upon. Most races don’t have a problem with that. The nephilim would consider crossbreeding a disgrace—very snobbish, those half-angel bastards. They believe they’re the Creator’s chosen race. Vampires and werewolves tend to mate with their own kind or turn a human if they’re interested. And the faeries, well, they don’t venture into this realm often. If they do take interest in a human while they’re here, the poor soul doesn’t generally live long enough for it to be a problem.”

  I shuddered thinking of Alistair. He was the only faery I’d ever met and I hoped it stayed that way.

  “If a supernatural-human relationship does form it tends to happen among necromancers because they are so rare even among supernaturals, and also with witches and warlocks seeing as how there are no male witches or female warlocks and a blood feud exists between us.”

  “Can we please get to the part where the council killed my mother?” Russ snapped.

  “Yes, I too am very curious about that,” Gabriel said, earning a nasty look from Russ.

  “The Valois family members are very traditional, as I’m sure you can imagine, being descended of French royalty. They are set in their ways of thinking. Because of the Hundred Years’ War and the personal impact on their history, they loathe humans. There is not a supernatural family on the planet that hates the human race more than the House of Valois.”

  “So the Councilor was pissed when you fell in love with my mom?”

  “Not just mad, Russ. He considered it a personal insult. He was devastated. He tried for years to get me to forget about her.”

  “And when you didn’t they killed her?” Russ asked. He looked like he was going to go bomb the consulate.

  “No, it didn’t happen like that,” Alex assured us. “Jaque had the council forbid me to tell your mother the truth about me.”

  “Understandable,” Gabriel muttered.

  Russ jumped to his feet and I had to pull him back down before he put his fist through something like a wall—or Gabriel.

  Alex continued as if nothing had happened. He was now as caught up in the story as we were. “They forbid it because they knew she would be able to handle it,” he said bitterly.

  “Come now, Mr. Devereaux,” Gabriel said. “You do not honestly believe that. The odds—”

  “If they really thought she couldn’t handle it they would have just had me tell her. She would have left me and their problem would have been solved.”

  Alex dared Gabriel with a look to argue but Gabriel was deep in thought. “You are right,” he eventually decided. “The council should have had no problem with you telling your human wife the truth. I myself would have encouraged it. Most likely she would have left you and if by some miracle she did accept the truth then there would be no threat to the supernatural. Your relationship would not be an issue.”

  Alex surprised us by smiling at Gabriel. “Would that everyone on the council thought like you. My ideals were very similar to yours young master Seer, but I was one of the more liberal minded council members. Valois convinced the others that a man on the council with a human wife, especially one who knew of the supernatural world, would cause trouble. They thought it would fuel the resistance—give them a false sense of hope. Some—Alistair, Angelo Torres—were not hard to convince of that position. In the end, the only ones to oppose the motion were myself and old Margret.”

  “I knew I liked her,” I mumbled to myself.

  “I like her too Dani,” Alex said. “But the two of us weren’t enough to hold off the vote. The council intervened with me the way they did with you and Gabriel. They voted for me to break up with Kate. They wouldn’t allow me to marry her.”

  I was appalled. “They couldn’t do that!”

  “They could and they did. They said if I continued my relationship with her they would throw me off the council. But Kate was pregnant and when the council learned it was a boy they didn’t want a Devereaux warlock to be taken by his human mother.”

  “Now that makes sense,” I said. “That greedy decision had to be the Councilor’s.”

  Gabriel looked like he wanted to question me but Alex nodded. “He vetoed the council’s decision and told me as long as I kept the truth from Kate I could marry her.”

  “So what happened?” Russ asked impatiently.

  “I married her. We had you. We were happy for three years, but I hated the lies. I knew that one day you would come into your magic and we wouldn’t be able to hide it from her. I quit the council and told her the truth.”

  “And?” I asked while Russ said, “She accepted it right? That’s why they killed her?”

  Alex’s face fell. “By the time I told her it was too late. I’d been lying to her for years. Her son was three. The deception drove her crazy. She thought Russ was evil—a demon or possessed.”

  “So the council killed her to keep her quiet?”

  Alex couldn’t find the words to answer Russ’s question.

  “What?” Russ asked desperately. “What happened?”

  Alex cracked. “She tried to kill you,” he whispered. “She tried to kill you and to stop her I—I had to kill her.”

  Russ and I both gasped. I buried my face in his chest and I’m pretty sure I was the only thing keeping him sitting upright at the moment. His body had gone limp against me.

  “You murdered my mom?”

  “I saved your life.”

  “I thoug
ht you said the council was responsible for her death,” Gabriel interrupted.

  “The council was responsible!” Alex yelled. “It was the deception that drove Kate to madness. If I could have just told her years earlier when I’d wanted to, everything would have been fine. She would have accepted it.”

  “You cannot be sure of that. You simply cannot blame the council for—”

  “It shouldn’t have been their business! Jacque Valois abuses his power. He hated my relationship with Kate. He couldn’t stand it that I chose to marry her over his objection—so he did everything he could to ruin our relationship. In the end he got exactly what he wanted. Just as he’s gotten his way with the two of you.”

  Alex sounded as bitter as I’d ever heard him when he looked at me and said, “He’s got you so confused that you’re turning your back on your family for his little pet Seer. Russ is right. You are not the Dani I helped raise. The Councilor has destroyed you just as he destroyed Kate.”

  I sucked in a breath, shocked by Alex’s hurtful words. “It was never your job to raise me,” I said in a shaking voice. “I am still the same Dani I always was. Just less naïve now. I can’t help it if that doesn’t fare well for you.”

  Russ had gone stiff when his father insulted me, even though it was the exact same thing he’d said last night. Now he squeezed me supportively. “You’re no different than the Councilor,” Russ said to his father.

  Even though we were outside, the temperature managed to drop a good ten degrees from the chill in his tone. “You say it was lies that drove my mom crazy, but you’ve been lying to us our whole lives.”

  “That’s different, Russ.”

  “You killed my mom!”

  “She was trying to murder you! She was crazy! I did it to save you.”

  “You made her crazy by keeping the truth from her! And, you lied to me!”

  “Did you really want to know that your own mother was scared of you enough to end your life? That’s not the kind of information you tell a child! I was protecting you.”

  “Just like you were protecting me by not telling me that Dani was supernatural all these years? You let me believe she was human. You knew how much I loved her and you told me not to tell her about us. You told me my mom abandoned me so that I’d be too scared to tell Dani about us. I treated Dani as a best friend and nothing more because of you, and now she loves me the wrong way! It’s your fault she picked the Seer and not me!”

  “Russ,” I whispered.

  “Only she was never human!” Russ continued to rant. “I don’t understand why you did it. You made me love her and then you purposefully kept her from me.”

  “That is not true.”

  “It is true!” Russ insisted. “You knew what she was! When we came into town that day and you saw her aura and her human parents, you knew she was a pure. You knew we would bond the way we did. You used me to get close to Dani!”

  “No,” Alex said quickly. “That is not true. I stayed because she needed our help. Form the first minute you met her, she clung to you. Even at three she was so starved for supernatural companionship that you couldn’t be separated. How could I leave?”

  “THEN WHY DID YOU LIE?” Russ was now so angry the veins in his neck were pulsing and his whole body was shaking.

  “Because it would have caused too many problems,” Alex said. Desperation was in his face and he could see he was losing this battle. “If you knew the truth about her, you would have told Dani.”

  “And how would that have been a problem?”

  “Because she loved her parents. They were good to her. She would have told them everything and they wouldn’t have been able to handle it. They would have thought we were filling her head with crazy lies. They would have taken her away and we couldn’t afford to lose her.”

  I felt a wave of anger hit me. “So it was about my power.”

  Alex looked at us both and sighed. “The resistance is right. The council needs to be stopped. They meddle too much. They have too much power. I knew how powerful you would be, Dani. I knew that if I could raise you right, when you and Russ were ready, we could stop the council together. And I was right. The three of us are more powerful than them. We could do it.”

  I was incredulous. “All this time,” I whispered. “All these years you pretended to care about my family.” I didn’t realize how much my heart felt like it was breaking until I sniffled. “You were my dad’s best friend,” I whispered on the verge of tears. “You were like a second father to me. How could you do it?”

  Alex looked as miserable as I felt when he said, “That wasn’t pretend. I’ve always cared for you. I’ve always tried to do what was best for you. For you and Russ both.”

  “Yeah, right!” Russ hollered, jumping to his feet. He yanked me to my feet as well and glanced at Gabriel. “You’re right Gabe. My father can’t be trusted. We’re leaving.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Alex said to Russ.

  “Try and stop us.”

  Alex grabbed Russ by the arm. “I am still your father and you will do as I say!”

  Russ surprised Alex by blasting him with the same spell he’d used to knock out Duncan back at the consulate. The one he said Alex taught him. It was so unexpected that Alex had no time to react. There was only a brief recognition and look of disbelief and then Alex was sleeping like a baby clear across the parking lot from where he’d been standing.

  Russ stared at his unconscious father, looking rather shell-shocked. “I always wondered why we ended up in Carmine, Pennsylvania,” he said suddenly. “I mean a road trip is one thing, but Carmine isn’t any where near anything. You have to drive two hours on four different county roads just to get to the nearest interstate. I have to forfeit my man card for admitting this, but I always thought fate brought us there. I was sure I was supposed to find you.” He frowned and his voice turned as dry as the dessert. “I didn’t realize dad was just running from America’s Most Wanted.”

  “At least now we know where you get it from,” I tried to tease, nudging him in the side with my elbow.

  Russ rolled his eyes but his lips twitched as he fought back a smile.

  “The reason why you were running doesn’t matter,” I said. “It was still fate. Your dad could have ended up anywhere in the world and he just happened to waltz into my town? What are the chances? If I’m really the Chosen One then that means the Creator put me in Carmine on purpose. Probably to keep me safe. But she knew I couldn’t be completely alone so she gave me you and your dad. You were the perfect pair for the job. Your dad kept me safe, no matter what his reasoning, and you made me strong. If I have the courage to fulfill any prophecies, it’s because of you. I needed you, Russ.”

  Russ stopped smiling and turned to face me. His hand slipped into mine and with it, I felt all of his vulnerability. “Doesn’t it make sense then, that I would be the one the prophecy mentions?” he whispered. “If the Creator brought us together, then we have just as much destiny as you and anybody else. More even. It’s me, Dani. You know it is.”

  The scary thing was that what he said made so much sense.

  He waited for me to agree with him but I couldn’t. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted or how I felt about either of them. The only thing I could do was let out a long frustrated scream and change the subject. “Can we please just figure out what we’re going to do?”

  “We must stop Robert from raising the Angel of Death,” Gabriel said while coming to my side.

  “Yeah, but how?”

  “Easy,” Russ said. “We track down the resistance and kill him.”

  Gabriel looked mortified. “I do not believe that is a wise plan.”

  “Of course not,” Russ grumbled. “So tell me, oh mighty all-knowing Seer, what do you suggest is a wise plan?”

  I sighed and Gabriel ignored the insult. “We go to the council.”

  Russ groaned loud and long. “Here we go again with the council crap.”

  “It is not…cr
ap, Danielle,” Gabriel said. Though he didn’t sound sure because he probably didn’t know what the word crap meant. “The council needs to be informed of their traitor and they have the resources to stop him. They are good people. How can I make you see that?”

  “Try torturing her for a few weeks and then brainwashing her. Worked for your beloved council the first time.”

  “Russ!”

  “What? It’s true. He’s trying to get you to trust the people who stole you and almost killed you just so that they could use you for your power. Does that sound like a good idea to you?”

  “About as good as hand delivering myself to the resistance and trying to take on an entire supernatural army by myself.”

  Russ cracked a smile that seemed highly out of place at the moment. “You’d have me with you. Duh.”

  “Oh, well then. By all means. Where do I enlist for the suicide mission?”

  “Ever heard of a sneak attack?” Russ questioned back. “We find them, use your sick cloaking spell to infiltrate them, and then cut the head off the snake. If we can kill Robert in their own freaking camp, then they’ll see how powerful you are. They’ll freak. You could convince them to stop trying to start a war. All they want is to not have to hide from humans. You could probably convince them to help you find that balance you’re always talking about.”

  I opened my mouth to argue but then frowned. “Actually. That doesn’t sound like such a bad plan Rusty.”

  “Of course it’s not. And just because you’re hot doesn’t mean you can call me Rusty.”

  I laughed. “Rusty.”

  “Real mature. I can’t believe the Creator picked you to be the Chosen One.”

  “Well I can’t believe she picked you to be my guide to the supernatural world.”

  “Well I can’t believe—”

  “Pardon me,” Gabriel interrupted. “But may we please stay focused?”

  I laughed at the way Russ glared at Gabriel.

  “Danielle, I really do not think going to the resistance is a good idea.”

  “Don’t!” Russ exploded suddenly. “You don’t think it’s a good idea! Dude. Learn how to use contractions. You sound like a freaking moron.”