Mismatched Pair

by J. L. Ray

  The Newmans arrived at the station not long after Tony left with Phil. Sergeant Hubbard had been given clearance to send them down to the holding pens. Civilian Naturals were usually kept out of there in case a Being in holding could magically influence them to release it. But Azeem felt there was no issue in this case. Tooley was already being allowed to run loose, so having the Newmans sit in shouldn’t make things any worse and might make them better. Berry was, after all, a victim, not a criminal.

  Baz had regained human form, and like most Changelings, when he returned to human form, his clothes returned with him. He sat in a corner of the pen, while both Azeem and Bergfrid talked to him, Azeem calmly standing over Bergfrid, who had dropped to her knees at his initial rejection.

  “You must give her a chance to explain, Detective de Groot. The PTB have only given you three days to decide before they will either let you be together or separate you forever.”

  “I don’t need three days to consider this woman’s betrayal,” Baz answered miserably, not turning his face toward the two, but talking toward the pen where Berry still paced. “I decided five hundred years ago.”

  “But what about the baby?” Bergfrid cried.

  Anthony and Amanda Newman had arrived just in time to hear this exchange. They stopped and stared, aghast at walking into so private a conversation, yet desperate to stay in the room and go to the cage holding their long-lost daughter.

  Azeem saw them and patted Bergfrid’s arm. After hours of fighting to get to Baz’s side, Bergrid was stymied by the anger that Baz had nursed for the centuries that she had passed in a magic-induced slumber, losing only a month of her life in Fairie in comparison to Baz’s five hundred years as a bear.

  “Come my dear, let’s get you something to drink and eat and then come back in a little while and try again, eh?”

  “I’m not hungry,” she said, dashing tears away and shooting such a powerful look of longing at the broadly muscled back turned defiantly toward her that everyone but the man it was aimed at felt overwhelmed with pity.

  “You may not be hungry,” Azeem said to her, “but your baby needs food, doesn’t she? Or he?”

  “He,” Bergfrid said, and stood up. “I know it is a boy from the way his body is sloped in my belly. It is always thus in the women of my family.”

  Azeem walked with Bergfrid toward the door, pausing by the Newmans to murmur, “The panther in this cage is your daughter. Baz’s Change overcame her magic. I calmed her a little.” They both glanced at the panther, which was still pacing the bars, but they said nothing. “I don’t know if mother-magic might do more than my own in this case.”

  “Mother-magic?” Amanda shook her head. “I know I am part witch, but I have no actual…skills or knowledge.”

  “Mundanian mothers have a magic that is low but strong. Fathers do, too,” he added, looking at Anthony. “But they do not tap into it as readily as mothers. I believe they are raised to ignore their own powers.” He nodded toward Berry encouragingly. “You must at least try to use those powers.”

  When he got into the hall, Bergfrid asked him, her eyes narrowed suspiciously, “Did you lie to them? I felt no special magic.”

  Azeem’s laugh ended almost in a purr. “Yes and no. What they have is not magic as we count it. But for now, they have something even more important. Love.”

  Anthony and Amanda walked over to the bench where Tooley sat, his robes pulled around him in a kind of defensive gesture. He wished he could leave, but he had a feeling that Azeem would think less of him, and he wanted to be certain that the lieutenant would keep the promises that Berry’s sister had made concerning his mother and brother. When the Newmans stopped in front of him, waiting for something, he finally said, “I am O’Toole.”

  Anthony frowned. “That’s it? Just O’Toole?”

  “Like Peter O’Toole, the actor?” Amanda added. “You know, you look a little like him, if a bit taller.”

  Tooley swallowed nervously. “My mother is a fan.” He gulped and added, “I get that a lot. I think the name just sort of...suggests it.”

  “Oh my, yes. I had an aunt named Vivienne, and she looked so much like the girl who played Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, that everyone thought she was...Oh. Well.” Amanda thought about it a minute. “I guess instead of plastic surgery, she must have magicked herself to look like that.” She looked at her husband. “You know, that woman got away with far too many shenanigans for my taste. If she was still around, I’d give her a piece of my mind!”

  “Well, she isn’t, and our daughter is,” Anthony said and looked at Tooley. “I believe her safety right now is something for which we have you to thank.” He didn’t sound particularly thankful or grateful.

  “I suppose so,” Tooley said. “I...I was fulfilling a contract. I didn’t know—”

  Anthony cut him off, furious. “Don’t tell me about contracts, young man. I have degrees in contract law. I understand contracts. I also understand criminal negligence. If our daughter is harmed in any way because of your actions, I will see you in Lock Up, if the Geas doesn’t take you first.”

  Anthony had walked in closer, using his size to intimidate the seated and apparently younger man in front of him. He had walked a bit close to the cage, and as he finished, a large black paw slid between the bars and almost swiped his arm. He jumped to one side as a growl rent the air.

  Tooley moved closer to the cage. “No, Berry. Please! It’s all right. Your parents don’t know me. They don’t know what happened. All they know is that you were hurt.”

  The panther that was Berry had settled on her haunches, green-gray eyes sentient and sad. She mewled at Tooley.

  “Do you know what she said?” Amanda asked breathlessly.

  Tooley raised a brow. “I don’t speak panther, madam. I am sorry. As little as you know me, she knows even less of you. You must be patient with her.” He turned to Berry’s panther form. “You know I would not hurt you.” The panther made no movement, but Tooley seemed to take this as an affirmative. “You know how much I love my mother and my brother.” He paused and then continued. “Give these people a chance, Berry. See if they are Beings you could trust. Let them explain.” He looked over at the Newmans and then added, “And if you decide that you don’t want to stay with them, for any reason, you are always welcome to live with my mother and brother.”

  Amanda gasped as the panther suddenly shifted to humanoid. In front of them sat some kind of RenFairie version of their Antonia. But this girl lacked Tony’s assurance, her confident posture and slow grin. This girl was curled in ball, huddled in on herself as if in pain, shoulders drawn in, face closed. Her eyes darted about, pausing on them and then running away to rest on Tooley, who stood and smiled at her reassuringly. These behavioral differences between her and Antonia were so extreme to them that they barely noticed her shock of bright pink hair.

  For a few moments, no one spoke. Baz, who sat in miserable silence in the other cell, watched them as if watching a FaeVision program. Eventually Amanda broke the silence.

  “You are so lovely,” she whispered, her voice hitching on the last word. “I can’t believe you are here in front of me.” Her voice stayed in a whisper, as if too much noise might make her daughter disappear. “I used to look for you in crowds. I knew that the...the creature who took you had taken you to Fairie, but I couldn’t help it. Every time I went to pick up Antonia at school, or to the park with the children, to a movie theatre or restaurant—I’d find myself checking the little girls in the room, to see if one of them was you.” Tears silently ran down her face, and she absentmindedly wiped them from her chin. “And now here you are, sitting right in front of me, and my heart is about to burst.”

  Berry had stilled at the sound of Amanda’s voice, lifting her head and looking up at her mother. As Amanda finished, she realized her daughter was trembling.

  “Can we open the cage now?” she asked Anthony.

  “I’ll get the keys,” he said and then wa
lked to the wall where the keys to cages hung.

  Tooley looked over at Berry. “Is it safe?”

  Inside, she was screaming, “NO! You’ll never be safe with me!” But her orders were clear and undeniable. She had to do this. “Yes,” she said shortly, clamping her lips shut on the denial she longed to yell.

  Once the door was open, these people, her parents, stood outside, hesitant to crowd her. Tooley went in and helped her from the floor. Changing had cost her energy, and she needed food. Her knees trembled, and he pulled her to his side and supported her to the bench outside the bars. She kept her face against his neck as they walked, wishing, as a child would, that when she looked up, only Tooley would be there, and they could run away with Mama Pernella and Bogey and live in peace. When he helped her sit, she sighed and looked up at the desperately hopeful faces of her parents.

  Tooley squatted in front of Berry and told her earnestly, “I’ll go get some food. I’ll be back. I’m not leaving you.”

  “Yes,” she replied. “Good.”

  He glanced over at Baz as he left and decided to bring enough for two. The detective hadn’t asked to be let out of his cage and Azeem hadn’t offered. Odds were that the detective might go off again. But he should still be fed. He nodded at Baz, who barely seemed to register the gesture. Then he went to find the formidable little desk sergeant, who seemed like the type of woman who could take care of problems like this quickly.

  Berry had no idea what to do. She sat, outwardly calm yet seething inside. If not for her orders, she would have been overjoyed. Instead, every moment, every nuance, rasped at her emotions, reminding her that the outcome had already been decided, and no matter what she did, there wasn’t a thing she could do to change it.

  Amanda pointed to the bench beside Berry. “May we?”

  “Yes.”

  The two sat to one side, still giving their daughter plenty of space. For a short while, silence again reigned.

  Amanda finally laughed a little. “I have taken so many etiquette courses over my lifetime, but none of them dealt with the proper way to greet a fairy-snatched daughter after almost thirty years. I feel as though I need to introduce myself.” She angled her body to face Berry, and Anthony followed suit. “Would that help?”

  “Yes,” Berry said. It didn’t matter what they said or did. She would go with them. She had no choice.

  “I am Amanda Newman, and my family, from eight generations before my own, descended from a witch, Euphemia, who broke with her sisters and coven and came to Mundania and married a Natural.” As she spoke, without thinking about it, Amanda had reached out and taken Berry’s hand. Berry hadn’t known what to do, so she kept very, very still. She was completely unaccustomed to gestures of kindness. She had not experienced many of them until she met Tooley. “In order to be allowed to stay, the head of the Witches Council demanded a price from my several times great-grandmere. A baby.”

  Berry breathed out, so quietly it almost couldn’t be heard. “Me.”

  “You, my little one.” Amanda patted the hand she held with her other hand. “Of course, Gran’ Euphemia didn’t know which of her children would pay the price for her freedom.” Her lips tightened. “I wonder who am I to judge her? I would not exist had she stayed in Fairie. She was not the sister chosen to carry the line. But I would not choose to sacrifice my child to save my life.” She choked a little on this bitter pill, since she had been forced to do exactly that.

  Tooley had slipped back into the room during part of this, enough to get the gist of the story. Since his mother had done as she pleased her whole life and her “screw the Bitches Council” attitude was one he had known for fifty years, he understood how hard it would have been for Euphemia to break those rules. Pernella did not have an easy life. Still, his mother had not given up either child. He might have had to move to Mundania to live, but the plan had always been to get them all back together again.

  Amanda continued. “I found out that I was having twins, and I panicked. My mother had warned me on my wedding day, so I knew what might happen if I had two daughters. I researched the contract.” She looked at Anthony, “You were just starting that phase of your graduate school courses, and of course, before the Great Change, the contracts you reviewed were all Natural law, not Supernatural. I read all of your books and found nothing to help me.”

  “Is that why you had such trouble sleeping during the first pregnancy? And keeping your weight up?” he asked. She nodded. “I wondered. At the time I thought it was new mother jitters. You never had those issues with Amelia or Alfred.”

  For the first time, Berry spoke. “My…my other siblings. Where are they?”

  Her parents cheered up at her interest in the rest of her family. “Amelia is living in the dorms at the university she attends. It’s nearby. She can come meet you as soon as you wish! And Alfred is fourteen. We woke him and told him we were coming down here to help his sister. He assumed we meant Antonia. We didn’t tell him yet, in case you...in case you didn’t want to see him.” Amanda sobbed a little. “He wants to meet you, so badly. They all found out about you last week, and he’s been talking about you since then. He’s a good brother.”

  “I...I want to meet them,” Berry said. It hurt her to it say it, hurt so much. She did want to meet her family, but she knew what she had to do and already every moment with them created an agony of anticipation of the blow she would strike. Berry cringed as Amanda smiled at her words.

  “Oh, Adele, you have no idea—”

  Berry interrupted her, “Call me Berry. Please.”

  Amanda looked chagrined. “I am so sorry. Yes, Antonia told me.” She gave a nervous laugh. “None of our children use their full names. Your twin prefers Tony, Amelia has always used Melly, and Alfred goes by Fred at school and with his sisters.”

  Berry nodded, happy to avoid having to explain that any time someone said her true name, it invoked the spell controlling her, the power shifting across her skin in an agony of pain. Her name had pushed her over the edge into a Change she had not wanted. She wasn’t supposed to have shown her family that. They weren’t supposed to know that she was also a Changeling, and not simply a fairy-snatched minor witchling. She had to hope that her master would not punish her for that, that the knowledge would not upset the plan.

  “Maybe, maybe tomorrow...” Berry said slowly.

  Tooley stepped forward, a box in his hand. “Here. The sergeant had a stash of homemade muffins in her desk drawer. She sent you all of them.”

  “Can I have one?” Baz asked them wearily. Even Anthony started at the sound of his voice, deep under normal circumstances, but raw and raspy now from his earlier outburst. They had forgotten he was there.

  “Yes,” Berry said, gesturing to Tooley to take him one. “I am sorry, Bear-man.”

  “For what?” Baz asked.

  “My...my sister and I, we have added to your pain. You carry a burden on your back,” she told him.

  His eyes widened. “How do you—?”

  Berry turned back to her parents and Tooley. Her eyes had gone opaque white and it was obvious that she was in full Seer mode, despite the magic-dampening effect of the station’s holding pen. That she could go so deeply into a Vision suggested power of a high magnitude. Tooley was amazed, but not surprised. He had no idea of the power of the dampening field, but he had measured Berry’s mpsi, and it was ridiculously high for Mundania.

  Anthony and Amanda simply stood still, afraid to make any move that might cause a problem.

  “You can lift that burden and let it go, or fall beneath its weight. The cost of letting go is hard, but the other cost is great. Your child will never know your love, unless you find a way, to come to peace with what you did and live for love today.”

  Azeem and Bergfrid walked in just in time to hear Berry’s pronouncement. They had gone to the breakroom for snacks that the lieutenant kept around for late nights. He had tried Bergfrid on Greek yogurt, which she called swill. He tried hummus and pita
chips, which she pronounced fit only as bird food. Finally, he pulled out a bag of Virginia roasted peanuts. She ate them as fast as he could crack the shells. When she had had enough to stop the pangs of hunger, she insisted on returning to check on Baz. Upon hearing Berry’s words, Bergfrid felt the strongest bit of hope she had had since her first sight of Baz.

  She walked over to the far wall, took the key to his cage, then walked to the cage and opened the door. She slipped inside and quickly pulled the door closed behind her, tossing the keys to Azeem, who caught them in one paw.

  “I know that killing Ullr left you with a burden of shame. I have wergild to give his family. We can lift this burden. I have told you that all that I did, I did for you. I never was touched by the demon Mephistopheles in a way that would betray our betrothal vows. The baby I carry,” she reached over and took his limp hand and dragged it to her belly, “is your child and none other’s. And if you do not give me a chance to reconcile with you, then you will never see this child.”

  Involuntarily, Baz looked over at Berry, who had slumped a bit after her Vision. Her parents watched him for a moment, and finally Anthony spoke.

  “Don’t be a fool. ‘Find a way,’” he repeated his daughter’s words. He turned to his daughter. “May we take you home with us?” Berry gave Tooley a desperate look, which her father saw. He wasn’t thrilled, but if that was what it took to make his daughter comfortable, he would do it. He turned to the lieutenant. “May we take Mr. O’Toole with us for the night?”

  Azeem wanted to say no, but he looked at O’Toole and shrugged. “If you don’t return, any deals made on my behalf by Detective Newman are null and void.”

  “Understood,” Tooley replied. He added anxiously, “And conversely, when I help you tomorrow, you will issue the Inter-Realm visa for my mother and brother? And petition the PTB for their eventual citizenship status?”