Merlin shrugged. “Yup. Had, actually… Past tense because one is dead.”
“It must have been really hard losing one of them.”
Another shrug. “Not really. He was an asshole. I don’t miss the back of his hand, I can tell you.”
Mateo’s eyes swam with sudden memories. It wasn’t only straight, homophobic parents who could be abusive, apparently. “With me, it was the belt a lot.”
“I got that, too.”
“But not with the dad you have left?”
“No.” Merlin paused, his hand on the knob of a door on the other side of the garage. “He never hits. Sometimes he looks at me like he’s really sad and disappointed. It’s stupid and it shouldn’t bother me. It does kind of, though. Weird, huh?”
“I know what you mean. I used to get that from my mom. I wanted to please her, except I couldn’t because she wanted me to be something I’m not.”
“Yeah, I get that. Everyone wants me to change. I sort of want to and also resent it at the same time.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Annika’s waiting. She’s awesome. You’re going to love her.”
Mateo followed the boy into a land of wonder. It was like the club, bright and shiny. Unlike the club, it was also homey. The big, open room held vast amounts of furniture and the kind of games one would find in an arcade. In the middle, there was a huge sectional sofa with what must be an eighty-inch flat-screen suspended from the ceiling in front of it. A beautiful girl with white-blonde hair reclined in the elbow, a dark-haired, chubn’tby toddler sitting next to her and a fluffy white dog curled up in her lap.
She sat forward when she spotted them. “Merlin, you succeeded! Hello! You must be Mateo. Come and join us.” She beckoned him and he felt drawn to her in some unnamable way.
“Hi, you’re Annika, I assume.”
“I am indeed. And this is Babette.” She was like a China doll, with flawless pale skin and the brightest blue eyes he’d ever seen. Her dress was a frothy pale pink confection that came down nearly to her ankles. “Merlin, take Idris. I want Mateo to sit next to me.”
The boy did as she’d asked—demanded really—plucking the little kid from his place and setting him on his hip. It was strange to see such a snarky guy play nanny. Maybe the toddler was his kid brother. Mateo sat gingerly near where the toddler had been, although not as close to the girl. That didn’t seem right, given that they were strangers. She turned on her side to stare at him anyway, dislodging the dog, who wandered over on its tiny paws to sniff at him.
“How are you feeling?” she asked him.
“Um, better, thanks.” He petted Babette, enjoying the animal’s soft, springy fur. It looked at him with wet, brown eyes.
“That’s good. It’s important for you to regain your strength.”
“I suppose.”
“Dr. Harry and Demi are taking good care of you?”
He eyed her, wondering why a girl like her would be so concerned about his well-being. “They’ve been great, yeah.”
They were quiet for a few seconds, then she said, “Mr. Christos is being very foolish, don’t you think, in avoiding you?”
He blinked at her a few times, trying to figure out how she knew about that. Who would discuss such a thing with her? Then he decided it didn’t matter. This was one weird family, but they’d been very kind to him and were offering him a brighter future than he’d had mere days ago. He rolled with the topic while trying to keep it as PG as possible.
“Yes, I do. I like him a lot, actually. I wish he’d trust me on that point.”
Annika shook her head, and her elaborately braided hair swung with the movement. Someone must have spent hours getting that ‘do’ in place. “He’ll come around eventually. You are meant for each other.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’m not sure I’d say that, exactly. I don’t think we’re, like, fated to be together or anything.”
The girl’s expression turned serious. “Oh yes, you are.” She put her hand on his shoulder and the touch was oddly calming. “He will be there for you when you most need him.”
“O-kay.” He turned his head to look at Merlin, seeking a break from all that intensity. The dog shuffled back to its mistress, managing in the way of all dogs to press its little paws right where it hurt a guy most. He hid his grimace.
Merlin’s attention was on the baby he held, anyway. He stared intently at him. “Who’s your friend, Idris?”
A finger poked him nearly in the eye. “You!”
Well, that answered the question of whether they were siblings. It still seemed odd that Merlin would be the least interested in such a young child.
“It’s very important that they bond,” Annika whispered into his ear.
Before he could think of a response to that bizarre statement, two men came over from somewhere behind them. They looked like more family members, with their dark hair and pale skin, although the shades were a tad lighter and darker in both cases than Christos and the other men. Annika’s different coloring stood way out. He wondered if there were more like her or if they were all like Christos. Was it a gender thing? He didn’t think that was how genetics worked, but his home schooling had been hit or miss, especially when it came to science. There was a lot about the world that he didn’t understand.
The taller of the two gave him an assessing look. “I’m Dafydd. You must be Mateo.”
“That’s right. I hope it’s okay that I’m here.”
Dafydd glanced at Annika. “I suppose, as it’s not my call anyway.” He turned his attention to the boys. “It’s time for Idris’ nap.” He held out his hands.
The toddler clutched at Merlin. “No!”
“Don’t be chopsy now, Idris. You can come play with Merlin and Annika when you wake.”
“Be good,” Merlin whispered into the kid’s ear before tickling him briefly. He handed him over to Dafydd, who had to be the father.
“Thanks, like. I swear he listens to you more than me these days,” Dafydd said, hefting his son on his hip.
“Idris and I understand each other. That’s all.”
“I dare say you do,” came the cryptic reply. At least Mateo didn’t get it.
When Dafydd left with Idris, the other man shuffled over to take his place. He kept his gaze cast downward and fiddled with his stubby ponytail. “Would anyone like some cookies? I just took a batch out of the oven.”
Annika clapped her hands and bounced on her bottom. “Oh, snickerdoodles?”
The man smiled. “Yes.”
“Then please do bring a plateful. And milk, as well…and treats for Babette?”
“Of course.”
Before the man left, however, Annika looked around Mateo to Merlin. “Make the introductions, if you please.”
The guy didn’t seem to appreciate that command. Nevertheless, he nodded toward the man in front of him. “This is my father Alun.”
This timid creature had raised the brash teenager? It made sense, he supposed. The dead father had been the ball-buster. He’d probably beaten his husband, too. That was true of a lot of abusive men, although not of his own father. Perhaps because nothing had made the man angrier that having a sodomite for a son. Compared to that, his mother couldn’t have done anything wrong that would have been as bad.
He gave the man a bright smile. “Hi, nice to meet you. Thank you for welcoming me into your home.”
Alun looked surprised at that, but eventually said, “We are happy to have you.” He never really stopped looking at the floor. Poor man.
Something clicked. “Hey, you’re the guy Damien said that Sergeant Jefferson met at Our Safe Place.” He wouldn’t have thought this was the cop’s type, except the man was lovely to look at like the rest of the people he’d met so far in the family. Pretty and available was every man’s dream, after all. Alun was a hot widower—with money, probably. Except Jefferson didn’t strike him as being greedy.
“Who’s that?” Merlin demanded, a scowl on his face. It was a good thin
g this wasn’t the father who hit.
Alun surprised Mateo by standing straighter and staring his insolent son down. “Someone I met, that’s all. I’ll go get those cookies, milk and dog biscuits,” he added to Annika before leaving on quiet feet.
Mateo sat awkwardly between Merlin and Annika, the former still scowling with his arms folded and the latter fussing with the TV controls. “So, Merlin,” he said into the silence, “I guess your fathers were really into the King Arthur legend, huh?”
The boy’s expression didn’t change. “No, we’re just Welsh.” As if that were answer enough. And apparently that was all Mateo was going to get.
He tried the girl instead. “So, what are we going to watch?”
She smiled brightly at him. “Have you seen the movies Frozen and Frozen II?”
“I snuck into a theater to see the first one when I was a kid, but I haven’t seen the sequel yet.” Movies were way too expensive to spend his hard-earned money on.
“Then we shall see both. I must warn you that sometimes I like to sing along.”
“That’s okay. I do too.”
“Excellent.”
Merlin muttered something like, “Shoot me now.”
Mateo didn’t care. It was fun to be with others, and if he stayed long enough, he might run into Christos. Then the man could see how well Mateo fit into his family and… No, wait. That was silly. He was thinking along the lines of forever when it was about having a good time, earning some coin.
He wasn’t falling in love with the guy and Annika had been wrong. They weren’t fated to be together. They weren’t.
* * * *
“Christos, are you listening?”
Val snickered. “No, Alex, he’s mooning over his boy.”
From his perch in the corner of the couch, Christos glared at his shipmate. “He is not my boy.”
“Really? Because you absolutely reek of the kid every day, so…” Val shrugged. “My mistake.”
Christos turned to Willem. “Will, do you mind if I take your place in your weekly sparring sessions with Val?”
“Yeah, no, I’m not getting into the middle of this nonsense. And do us all a favor, Christos, and fuck the human already.”
Christos rose. “Fine, I’ll take you both. I could use someone to pound on. All this waiting around shit is driving me crazy.”
Alex smacked his hand on his desktop. “Enough! Sit, Christos. And shut up, Val. Baiting him isn’t helping any.”
Christos sat again. “I’m sorry, Alex. I did miss what you said. Would you mind repeating it?”
“I was relaying our most recent conversation with Petru. He has given us fifteen potential locations where Dracul could be holing up. Of those, Val’s satellite searches have eliminated ten as clearly lacking in activity.”
“I don’t understand, sir. I thought we were going to leave it to Dracul to come for us?”
“That plan never sat well with me, even though it seemed like our only choice at the time. This waiting game is dragging out too long. We’re losing our edge and fretting over the safety of our families. And it can’t be good for them to see us like this and to be constantly in training for a battle that may never come.”
“And why wouldn’t it?”
Val answered. “Petru has done the math and insists that Dracul is out of all but three men. And knowing them as he does, he doubts they’ll be inclined to rally to the cause, not now that they’ve seen he’s vulnerable. It’s far safer and more appealing to live out their lives in anonymous comfort with the riches they’ve amassed.”
“Not that we can count on the fucker being honest about that,” Malcolm pointed out.
“That goes without saying, of course,” Alex agreed. “Although his devotion to Annika does seem to be genuine.”
“It had better be,” Will interjected. “I won’t hesitate to tear him apart if he so much as gives her the wrong look.”
“Yes, Willem,” Alex soothed. “We all know your fatherly ferociousness is not to be trifled with. But I did promise him safe passage so long as he plays square with us. I have to believe that, if nothing else, he has a strong sense of self-preservation.
“Which leads us back to whether to play defense or offense. Dracul’s message to us may have been all bluster. He’s outnumbered unless he uses humans.”
“He’s done that before,” Emil reminded them all, before pushing a plate of brownies in Christos’ direction. “Eat something. You’ve been working all day at Our Safe Place, yet Logan tells me you don’t touch the food.”
“It’s for those kids.” He took one of the gooey squares anyway because he was hungry. And maybe he’d take another one when the meeting ended and take it to Mateo. Oh geez, it had been maybe five minutes since he’d thought of the boy. It was why he’d missed what Alex had said. Damn Val for being right anyway. And it was happening again. He forced his attention back to Alex.
“Even if we locate him, I wouldn’t dare mount a raid and leave our home and families underdefended.”
“The hybrids and the changelings will never be able to fight on their own.” The thought of it, of Mateo being caught up in some invasion mounted even by mere humans, made his blood run cold.
“I’m going to use drones,” Val said, “to scope out the last five places. There’s some activity in each of them, although it’s hard to say what kind. It’s possible that humans have discovered his lairs and taken them over. Petru says that he has large stockpiles of weapons, food, Krugerrands and other precious metals and jewels in each place. They’re well-hidden, but even the ancient pyramids get discovered every once in a while. It’s not impossible that humans stumbled upon some of them and stripped whatever was there, leaving it useless for Dracul.”
“We’re looking to outfit some larger drones with weapons, as well,” Will added. “If we can find him, we may be able to do significant damage from a remote location without using all our manpower.”
Tony waved his hand. “I’ve been experimenting for years on building a bunker buster that’s a quarter of the size and weight of the kind humans use.”
Christos grinned. “And here I thought you were raising reindeer or something.”
“That too, although they mostly raise themselves and the winters are really long in Lapland. I had to find something to do with my time—or risk driving Mikko crazy.”
“I told you to come to Tanzania,” Claude chastised. “Nen would love having Mikko for company. And there’s no snow there.”
“Only bugs the size of elephants.” Tony shuddered. “And, also, elephants.”
Claude swatted him on the back of the head. “Who the hell doesn’t like elephants?” He grinned at his shipmate. They had always been among the most congenial of them all. Christos was glad they’d found their happiness on this Earth and hated how they’d had to leave that for this shitshow of Dracul’s making.
“Gentlemen, we are getting off topic,” Alex rebuked mildly. “We need to remain vigilant while working this parallel plan of bearding the lion in his den. Christos, I’m giving you the lead on security here at the club. Val is too busy. Claude, you will be his right-hand man.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I know it may seem a mundane task, but we can’t afford trouble with the human police and I won’t give Dracul the satisfaction of forcing me to shut down the one place where many of us have found a measure of peace and joy.”
“We’re with you on that, sir,” Malcolm spoke for all of them. “This is a fine place and lots of people depend on it for their livelihood.”
“Yes,” Christos echoed as he stood. “I don’t take offense at the request, nor do I resent helping those homeless kids with Will and Emil. Being good citizens of this planet has always mattered to those of us in this room. If not, we would have thrown our lot in with Dracul ages ago.”
Alex nodded once. “I appreciate the sentiment and what all of you have done. I swear to you that this is the end. We will stop this rogue drone once and for a
ll. Then Annika can lead us to a brighter future.” He smiled at Will as he said this last bit, reminding their shipmate that his ability to produce a Queen was welcome news. “Thank you, gentlemen.”
It was a dismissal and they all knew it. They filed out of the office and scattered to their various tasks, except Claude, who stuck by him.
As did Val. “Do you guys need any help with the security? I ask because I promised Annika I’d give her lessons on coding. She’s into computers and Will doesn’t have the skills to train her.”
Christos answered for both of them. “We’re good. It’s not that hard, because you’ve got everyone under tight control already. Although I would like to check in on Mateo before I head to the main floor. Don’t say it,” he added, putting his hand up in Val’s face.
“You won’t find him in his room.” Quinn walked over on his way to Alex’s office. “Merlin came to get him, at Annika’s request. I would have said something to Alex earlier, but I don’t like being a snitch and I really don’t want Alex to go toe-to-toe with the Queen.” He said the last word in a whisper, likely in case any human lurked nearby.
Christos didn’t care who heard him. “That’s crazy! Why in the fucking world would she do that?”
Quinn shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I’m the reluctant messenger. I wouldn’t have said anything, except I didn’t want you to waste your time looking in the wrong place. Last I saw, which was like five minutes ago, he was on the couch with Annika and Merlin watching Frozen II. Just when we all thought we’d gotten her off that kick, they had to release a sequel.” With that and a roll of his eyes, he continued on his way.
Christos smacked his forehead. “For the love of God, what am I supposed to do?”
Clapping him on the shoulder, Val sang, “Let it go!”
Christos glared at him. “If we didn’t need you so badly, I’d rip your throat out.”
“I’d like to see you try. Come on. Let’s go get your boy.”
“He’s not my boy.”
Val walked away. “Sure, Christos. Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, Alex about Quinn, Emil and Jase, Will and Damien for sure…nd me. I used to say that about Mackie.” He paused and looked over his shoulder. “And how did all that turn out?” He laughed his way down the hall.
Final Dance: Part One (Alien Blood Wars Book 8) Page 13