by John Goode
I had an answer to that, but his kiss interrupted my train of thought.
HE KISSES the boy and feels their passions join.
The bond that seems to connect them startles the young prince but he gives no outward sign. It reminds him of what tales of The Calling described.
He had heard those stories since the early childhood. Two people are drawn to each other and overcome great obstacles in order to do that. He’d liked them, especially the battle parts. As he had matured, he dismissed them as fables told to lull small children to sleep. But Hawk never forgot them. Each of the tales started in nearly identical fashion: when the universe came to be, there was one great soul of the universe, a living, breathing thing that lived and moved inside, as one. When the Creator began to shape the multitudes of worlds, she cut pieces of the soul up and used them to create all of life.
Through these souls, all life is connected. Hawk had liked that part of the tale, and, as had many others, translated it to mean that inside of each of us was a small piece of the Infinite, a shard of creation burning in each of our hearts.
In the stories, a Caster says that it is through this Infinite one that Hawk’s people were able to access the magical forces that surround us all. The Aware can tap the magic. But among the Aware, only a very few have had the ability to harness the invisible power.
Fewer still, are those to whom Calling came.
When two pieces of the soul that had once been whole in the great tapestry met, they were irrevocably drawn to each other, becoming one soul residing in two bodies. There was no greater connection than the Calling, and over the centuries, many people had claimed to have experienced it. Hawk had simply assumed these people were using the age-old tales as an excuse for their sudden and drastic obsession for romantic love.
He had never thought Calling possible. But here he was, drawn to this boy and feeling the unmistakable echoing of emotions that bordered on empathic. The hollow ache of separation, the feeling of wholeness when they kissed. Hawk couldn’t ignore what was happening and everything he’s experiencing.
The problem was that Kane was human.
The story also states that each world was made of the same parts of the soul, meaning the Connection could only be made with one of your own people. There was great debate about this distinction, some claiming it was a social means of justifying xenophobic behavior, while others said that the Creator would never put one’s soul mate out of their reach. Either way, it was generally agreed on that though people from other worlds could fall in love, The Calling was only for one of your own kind.
Yet here Hawk was with a human.
“You okay?”
Hawk blinked a few times, realizing his mind had wandered at some point during the kiss.
“Of course,” he answered, flashing the boy a smile. “You take my breath away.” Which was true, but had nothing to do with his lack of attention.
Normally Kane would blush and smile back, but from the way his eyes narrowed at Hawk’s words it was obvious he didn’t believe the sentiment behind them. “What’s wrong?”
The list of things that were wrong at that moment staggered the young prince, but enumerating them wasn’t what the human was looking for. Instead Hawk asked, “Explain to me again why we are not going to the academy.”
Kane continued to stare at him for several seconds before he decided to answer. “It’s Saturday, and it’s called school, and you’re changing the subject.”
“So we go tomorrow, and yes I am,” Hawk replied, smiling.
“No, we go Monday, and that’s if they have school at all because of the fire.” Kane’s open annoyance was obvious, but Hawk let it slide for the moment. “Something like that doesn’t just go away.”
“So we have two days before we are expected anywhere?” The prince was trying not to think of the repercussions of their battle but it was hard. Kane nodded slowly with a confused look on his face. “I need to get back into the theater.”
If the human’s eyes could have fallen out of his head, they would have at that exact moment. “Are you insane!” Kane hissed, grabbing Hawk’s arm and pulling him off the street. They stood in the space between Stop! Hammer Time, Mr. Trevor’s hardware store, and There is a Flower Within My Heart, Ms. Coti’s flower shop. Gritting his teeth in his effort to remain calm, Kane explained, “It’s bad enough you had Spike start that damn fire, but they are going to be looking to see if it was arson or not. What do you think they are going to say if we’re caught poking around?”
Hawk stared at him for a few seconds, waiting to see if there was any more to the question. When it was obvious there wasn’t he tried answering. “I’m not sure, but I would assume they would start with some kind of exclamation. Then they’d ask us what we were doing there. By the way, who are ‘they’?”
Now it was Kane’s turn to pause in case there was more. “They are the police and the fire marshal. Hawk, I wasn’t being literal. They will suspect us of having had something to do with it.”
“We did.” Hawk wasn’t sure what the problem was, but whatever it was, Kane was obviously upset by it. “I need to test to see what kind of magic was used to animate the uniforms. It will tell me if there are Dark agents here or if it was something else.”
“Something else?” Kane practically yelled. A couple walking by looked at them, and Kane smiled and waved as they walked by. “Something else?” he asked in a lower voice. “What else could it be?”
Hawk shrugged. “I don’t know with any certainty. There are several different possibilities that make sense. The Crimson Matriarch could have done it, but she’d never bother with something as minor as moving clothes.” He sighed as he shook his head. “All of this is idle speculation until I can actually examine the site.”
Hawk felt the tension of the situation begin to descend on him again and closed his eyes to steady himself. What he had told the boy was the truth, but not all of the truth. He had a very good idea who was responsible for the attack in the auditorium; he just didn’t want to admit it to Kane or himself yet.
He felt Kane’s hand on his shoulder. When he opened his eyes he saw the boy’s eyes brimming with emotion. “Okay, we check out the theater. We just have to be careful.”
Hawk smiled and pulled Kane into an embrace. This time Kane didn’t complain that someone might see them.
CHARMING THE girl had been disgustingly simple.
Spike had been taught the Art by his father and had found he possessed a knack for it. From time to time, he was even able to Charm the prince. The Changeling had been attempting to force the human to lose his interest in Hawk since their paths had intersected, but with no luck at all. Spike worried that humans in general might be immune to Charms but that fear evaporated once it held Jewel in thrall.
It had believed it would have to find a way to seduce her into betraying her friend, but it became obvious that she had no defense from his abilities. He quickly abandoned his plans to convince her and moved directly into controlling her every thought. He had commanded her to lead him to her house while it tried to figure a way to have revenge on Hawk while simultaneously saving the prince’s—and its own—life from his father’s wrath.
Spike was surprised to find her parents home.
Neither Hawk nor Spike had understood the complexities of what the humans called a “workweek,” so the concept of a weekend was lost on the shape shifter. The girl’s sire was heavier and flabbier than the daughter, but one source of her girth became evident at once. The sire was visibly confused by the fact of his, at best, average-looking daughter standing at the door with an especially handsome boy. However, his confusion lasted only for a moment.
Less than half a second passed, and Spike stole the man’s mind and commanded him back into the house.
The three of them walked into the house, Spike closing the door behind them. He commanded the father to call the mother in, and within a matter of minutes he controlled the whole family. If all humans were this easil
y managed, it might have found a way to make this world livable. Quickly, it had the mother begin cooking him food, while it had the sire adjust the magical box Jewel called the teevee.
“So, Jewel,” Spike said with a lazy leer, “how do we get Kane and Hawk for abandoning us?”
Her vacant eyes didn’t even blink as she responded, “We can get Kane arrested. Put in prison.”
Spike leaned forward. “Go on.”
THE RAIN had reduced the remains of the theater to a soggy, mostly anonymous, pile of ash and scraps. Everything smelled gross.
Yellow tape closed off the area, but I didn’t see anyone standing around. That was good since I had no idea how to explain our presence to a security guard. I nodded to Hawk that the area was clear and took a step to cross the street, but he stopped me.
“What are the bindings for?” he asked, gesturing at the tape.
“It says it’s a crime scene,” I explained, but he just gave me that familiar blank stare. “It’s forbidden to cross because they are investigating it?” I tried.
“What happens if we cross it?” His voice was deep with suspicion.
“Um, we get in trouble if caught?”
He looked at me as if I was insane. “That’s it?”
I nodded. “That’s pretty much what most of the signs mean.” I had a feeling things were much worse on his world. “Why? What should happen?”
He shook his head angrily as he crossed the street. “I don’t understand this world at all. How do leaders maintain order if breaking a law has no consequences?”
I followed him, watching everywhere, making sure I hadn’t missed anyone. “There are tons of consequences if we get caught!”
“It is a bit late by that time, don’t you think?” he called back as he began to make his way through the ash-covered debris. “It seems to me that if you had some form of punishment immediately it might be more effective since escaping detection looks as if it’s painfully simple.”
“I have a feeling I don’t want to break a law in your world,” I said. He paused and looked back at me with a grave expression on his face. “No. You’d don’t.” I decided not to press the point. I followed his steps toward the spot where the stage had once stood.
I wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Everything looked like a grayish black, melted, soot-covered, moldy-paper-and-cloth mess to me. From the way he poked methodically through the mess with the tip of his boot, he was on the hunt for something specific.
I felt completely exposed; we stood out in the open with no place to hide if shit went down. If Hawk was the least bit concerned, he didn’t show it. For a second, I considered being pissed off, however, freaked out won. “Can we hurry this up?” I asked after a few minutes. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
He knelt down, brushing a lump of soaked wood aside. At once, his body froze in place; I looked at him and saw from his expression that he found what he was looking for. “Ruber, some assistance, please.”
“Is that acceptable?” the gem asked me in my ear.
“If it gets us out of here quicker? Please,” I replied softly.
I felt the gem wiggle out of my ear and watched it expand in size as it floated toward Hawk. Hawk pointed at something lying unburned beneath the debris and sighed. “See what you can detect there.” A flickering light appeared under the ruby, emanating down to the area Hawk had dug out. “There are traces of arcane energies… they are Arcadian in origin.” The lights began to quicken. “I can sense—”
“Freeze!” a voice called out behind us.
I spun around and saw two policemen standing on the edge of the fire. “Kane Vess?” one of them called out. I nodded, panicked, not sure if I should raise my hands or not. “Come on out of there, we have some questions for you.” I looked over my shoulder and wasn’t that surprised to not see Ruber or Hawk. I turned around slowly and raised my hands, wondering exactly when it was his life had become such a tub of crap.
HAWK AND Ruber crouched behind the field of invisibility, watching the police put Kane into the police car.
“That can’t be good,” Hawk said quietly.
“I believe that is the very definition of not good,” Ruber agreed.
Chapter Fourteen
JEWEL HUNG up the phone and sat on the couch quietly.
“Well done,” Spike said as it shoved an entire leg of turkey in his mouth and pulled out a bone. “So he will be incarcerated?”
Jewel nodded blankly. “He’s arrested.”
Spike could see the emotion moving silently behind her eyes. She was distressed beyond measure, but his control over her mind was absolute. “And they will what? Kill him?”
He saw her expression drop in horror at the same instant that her emotions freed her from Spike’s magic before he could regain control over her again. “No,” she said, her body shaking from the stress. “They will try to prove he set the fire and then call his dad.” Again, he felt the panic rise and the hold on her mind slip, but he bore down and forced her to obey. “He will be in a lot of trouble,” she finally decided on.
“Trouble is good,” Spike said to himself as he leaned back and began to devour another piece of turkey.
A voice said from behind him, “Not all trouble.” There was a small prick in his back, and Spike felt his world grow dark. His last thought was only one word.
Assassins.
KANE KNEW he was screwed.
He had never been in trouble before, but he was pretty sure this was the most trouble you could be in and not be legally shot. He sat in the interview room wondering what was taking them so long? They had caught him dead to rights at the scene of the crime. He was pretty sure that made him a criminal. How much more did they need?
And then it hit him. The police or the school were probably trying to call his dad.
The thought that he couldn’t feel any worse was quickly dispelled and replaced with the thought that this was just the tip of the feeling-crappy iceberg. He felt himself sliding further down in his chair, wishing he was dead. The buzz of the fluorescent lights was deafening in the small room as Kane waited for his life to end.
An older policeman entered the room after long, agonizing minutes. He held a folder in one hand and had a box in his other. He studied the contents of the folder and, without looking up, placed the box between them and sat across from Kane. “Kane Vess, sophomore at Qunice and taking drama.” He closed the folder and looked directly at the younger man. “So you wanna tell me why you burned the theater down?”
Kane felt his mouth go dry as his heart seemed to stop beating. It was at that moment he realized he would never be a career criminal. “I, um… I didn’t?” he said, but with his voice cracking from stress it came out as a question.
“Oh, you did,” the cop said, leaning forward. “What I want to know is why?”
Kane tried to swallow and realized his tongue felt like he had just trekked across the desert in search of whatever it was people looked for in the desert. “Can I get some water?” he asked in a croak.
“Sure,” the man said, smiling. “As soon as you tell me why you burned down the theater.”
Kane had no idea what to say to that. He opted for denial. “I didn’t,” he said more forcefully.
“So then you can explain why you were poking around a crime scene?”
Kane knew he couldn’t. “I was just looking around.” The words sounded lame to him, he couldn’t imagine how it sounded to the cop.
“Looking for this?” he said, opening the box.
Kane looked at the half-charred remains of his backpack. It was covered in black soot, and part of it was burnt away, but it was unmistakably his. He tried to swallow again and said in a weak voice, “That’s not mine?”
“The fire department had found a small amount of stuff that wasn’t completely engulfed. We had no idea whose this was until a witness came forward today and said you claimed to be in the theater before it caught fire.” He put the cover back on the box. “
So let’s start over,” he said with an overly large smile. “Why did you burn down the theater?”
Kane felt like he was going to cry as he opened his mouth even though he had no idea what he was going to say.
Before he had to decide, the door opened again and both of them looked over and saw Hawk walk in. The officer stood up, obviously upset. “This is an interrogation, you can’t just walk in here like…,” he began to roar, but Hawk locked eyes with the older man and said in a low tone. “Sit down and be quiet.”
The policeman sat down instantly. The look on his face made it clear he was as shocked as Kane was by the action. Hawk closed the door behind him and sat next to Kane. “Sorry it took so long, it took Ruber some time to figure out where they’d take you.”
The ruby floated up, expanding to its full size. “That is untrue,” it said in that same distant cousin-to-a-British accent. “He had no idea where you’d been taken; it just took him some time before he asked me for directions.”
The cop’s eyes bulged out at the talking, floating ruby. Exasperated, he grunted and glared at the boys and the gem.
“What are you doing here?” Kane asked, trying to ignore the man.
“Rescuing you, of course,” Hawk answered with a smile. “You didn’t expect me to allow them to take you?”
“This is you rescuing me?” Kane said, pointing to the police officer, whose face was now red with shock. “You ever hear of stealth?”
Hawk gave him that all-knowing grin and said, “You ever hear of The Charms?”
Kane had to admit he hadn’t.
“Watch,” Hawk said, turning to the cop. “Kane did not start that fire.”
The man’s face relaxed as he stared forward as if drunk. “Kane did not start the fire,” he repeated.
“In fact, he had nothing to do with the fire at all.”
The man’s face twisted in confusion as he tried to digest the new and forcefully stated idea. “He-he did have… something….”