Filthy

by Katherine Rhodes

  Wren: Tabi called me Mom! Just now in the car!

  Fischer: Holy crap! :D

  Lincoln: Awesome!!

  I dropped the phone back in my bag and started driving again, pulling up the twins’ favorite station on the radio. For some reason, they love classic rock and could belt out Led Zeppelin with the best of them. And right now, they were all about Immigrant Song, including some of the instruments.

  These two were the best.

  Today was their physical therapy at St. Christopher’s and I was happy to take them. They were making great strides, and I was sure the PT was going to be able to be reduced soon. Having been kept in a literal cage for two years while they tried to break them to be sex objects, they lost a lot of fine motor skills. Holding a pencil was harder for Tabi than it was for Tim, but Tim had coordination problems. So the PT and occupational therapy were working together to get them up to speed. I was pretty confident that by January we’d be able to put them in the local school and get them back to normality.

  Despite all of our efforts we were never able to find their family. We weren’t even sure where they had originally come from, though both of them described wheat fields when they were asked about something in their past before they were taken.

  I was convinced they were fostered before they were stolen. More than once, Tim had mentioned putting everything in big black bags—most foster kids toted everything they owned from home to home in contractor trash bags. Which meant that there was no way to get anything they owned before.

  Paige Domingues had managed to get them birth certificates based on their situation. They had remember their birthdays, and the time they were born. They were listed on them as Tabitha Doe and Timothy Doe, which we were hoping to change soon. Lincoln was going to adopt them, as soon as he could get cleared.

  The appointment for them was nearly two hours, but that was because they worked with them together. We’d tried to have them do everything separately, but that had been a giant, rolling clusterfuck. They were not interested in being separated. So, we kept them together.

  I had to put in a few hours at the office anyway, so I usually took them to the hospital. I would drop them at home, with the tutors, and then head off to check on Bastian before my afternoon appointments in University City.

  Bastian had been in the townhouse nearly a month. I didn’t think he was doing well yet, but he was doing things that didn’t involve staying in bed all day. I was going to attempt to convince him to start seeing some of his patients next week. Some of the ones who were easier cases, not traumatic ones.

  Which excluded Ellie, but she seemed content where she was for the moment. She had broken up with Mason about a month before, but they were still friends. Which was good because she could use all the friends she could find. She was markedly improved from when we found her, but she wasn’t quite free of all the panic attacks and backsliding.

  With one twin on each hand, I couldn’t wave to Andy as I walked in. He laughed, and trotted over to me.

  “Hey, Doc, looks good on you.” He smiled.

  “Thanks.” I rolled my eyes. “Six months ago, I had no children. Now I have three.”

  “Hey, Nurse Andy!” Tabi said, bouncing a bit. “Are you our therapy assistant today?”

  His face fell. “Not today, kiddo. Mister Pallino didn’t want an assistant.”

  My heart froze in my chest. “Pallino?”

  “Yeah,” he said in a huff.

  “Kids, run a head a bit and use the bathrooms, please. I’ll be right outside.” The two of them took off and headed straight in. I turned back to Andy.

  He shook his head. “Faukner had to rush out of town for a family meeting and only Pallino was around.”

  “They’ve never worked with him before. They like Kim, they work well with her.”

  “I know, Doc,” he said. “I voiced my concerns, but you know no one ever listens to the nurses.”

  Shit. This was bad. Andy had gotten a bad feeling about Pallino when he’d first gotten here. The kids didn’t react to him well and that made everything more difficult in a hospital that was built for children with special needs.

  “I was going to work in the office for a while, but that was because you were going to be with Kim while they were in there. Does he have any assistants?”

  “He doesn’t like to use them,” Andy answered.

  “Dude, I cannot leave two sex trafficked children with a stranger alone. Christ, that’s just asking for trouble. They’re going to freak out.”

  “Go in,” he answered. “You haven’t had a chance to see how this guy works, and if you can see that he’s frightening the kids, the board might actually listen to you and terminate him.” He grabbed my elbow. “Wren, no one likes him. No one likes the way he works. No one likes his attitude. He’s all wrong for a children’s hospital. We have to get him out of here.”

  I patted his hand. “I’m not leaving them alone. I’ll pull rank on him if I have to.” I paused a moment. “I think we need to make a policy that says trauma victims cannot be left to the purview of only one staff member. We need to trust everyone, but the kids aren’t there yet.”

  “I agree,” he said. “You bring it up.”

  I shook my head and moved toward the bathrooms. “I’m also going to introduce a policy that says trust the fucking nurses!”

  He laughed. “If only it were that easy.”

  Tim popped out and grabbed my hand. I glanced down at him. “Excuse me, young man. Did you wash that paw?”

  “No, I washed the other one,” he said earnestly. “That’s the one that I hold my penis with.”

  I desperately tried not to laugh. This kid was a master at one handed peeing. “Tim, you need to wash both hands, each time. We’ve talked about this.”

  “This is hopsital bathroom, not pubic one.”

  I choked the laugh back again. “Tim. Anything that isn’t at home is a public bathroom. People in here are very, very sick, and you want to help keep them healthy. Washing your hands helps control the germs. So please, bud, wash both paws?”

  He nodded and popped back into the bathroom.

  Tabitha came out a moment later, holding a damp paper towel. I didn’t know where she had picked up the ‘open the door with your paper towel if you can’ habit, but I appreciated that. She found a garbage can and tossed it in, then grabbed my hand. Tim was back just after that and his still wet hand grabbed my other hand.

  “Okay, you two,” I said as we headed down the hall. “So, Doctor Kim isn’t here today. She’s had to go out of town. You’re going to be working with Doctor Pallino.” I pulled them to stop at the entrance to the therapy room. “Doctor Pallino is nothing like Doctor Kim. I want you to be on your best behavior, but I am also going to stay in the room with you, okay?”

  “Why you, Mom?” Tim asked. “Why not Nurse Andy?”

  “Because Doctor Pallino doesn’t work with associates. He doesn’t have other people who come in and help him. So, I’ll be there if you two need anything, okay? Just ask, but I’m going to have my laptop and try to get some stuff done.”

  “Okay,” Tabi said, and Tim nodded a moment later.

  We walked into the room, and I was hit with a wall of cold the likes of which I’d never felt. The air in the room was icy, and it sucked the breath out of my lungs as I stood there.

  What the hell was this?

  Both of the twins moved from holding my hands to wrapping their arms around my waist and pulling in close.

  “…Wren?” Tim’s voice was full of terror, and he wasn’t using Mom like he had been in the past week.

  I didn’t have a chance to turn and walk out of the room. Doctor Pallino walked out of a side room and smiled at me.

  It was the smile of a demon. I could see, but couldn’t see, the sharp pointed teeth that were yellowed and thicker than any human’s I’d ever seen. His skin flickered from human tones to a gray black hue, and his eyes were bright yellow behind the brown he tried to projec
t.

  “Good morning, Doctor Warner.” The smile was positively terrifying. “Are these my two little special patients?”

  Right at that moment, I desperately wished for one of the swords. Ellie’s, Miriam’s, Laxmi’s…I didn’t care. This man wasn’t human. He couldn’t be. I wasn’t used to the whole not-human world, but there was no question that he was evil.

  “…Mommy…” Tabi whimpered.

  I looked down at her and realized she was watching the floor. I followed her line of sight, and found the floor around Pallino’s feet boiling with what looked like tar.

  A hand reached up out of the tar and I could hear the faint scream of pain as it dipped back down.

  “What the fuck?!” I gasped. My eyes snapped back to Pallino. “What are you?”

  “I’m a physical therapist,” he said, spreading his hands wide in a mock of a welcome. “Come, children, it’s time for your therapies.” His hand reached out.

  Do not let him touch them.

  It was Laxmi’s voice, but what she was doing in my head I had no idea. It was, however, sound advice. I pulled the twins behind me, and backed up a few steps.

  “I think we need to cancel,” I said.

  “Oh, now come. I know I’m not Kim, but I promise that you won’t regret my help.”

  Fuck me if that didn’t sound like a demon trying to lay a trap. Textbook, evil demon stuff. This was unreal.

  “Mom, I want to leave,” Tim managed through tears I could hear in his voice.

  I needed to get the twins out, but I didn’t want to take my eyes off this thing in front of me. I desperately wanted one of those swords. There was a sneaking suspicion I harbored that those swords were going to be the only thing to dispatch this thing.

  Pallino’s smile wavered a bit. He was clearly losing his patience with me. “Temperance. Let the children come to me.”

  “Oh, hell no,” I snapped. “No. Tabitha, I want you to back up slowly, and grab your brother’s hand. I want you to carefully find that door that we just walked in, and open it. We’re leaving and I need you to get that door open.”

  I heard a faint click as Pallino waved his hand.

  He locked the door with his dirty dark magic, I just knew it. A moment later I heard a little whimper from Tabitha that confirmed it.

  Shit. How did I get out of this?

  “They’re ours, Temperance. They belong to us.”

  I wasn’t sure he was speaking, but I could feel the words shivering over my skin.

  “Just stay back,” I snapped. “These are my children, and you won’t take them. Not now, not ever.”

  His disguise, illusion, whatever, dropped in that moment and we could see him in his pure hideous form. Both Tabitha and Timothy screamed at the top of their lungs and I couldn’t say I blamed them. I’d seen what was lurking, but they hadn’t.

  I pulled both of them back in close to me, encouraging them to wrap their arms around me. “I don’t know what you are, Pallino, but these children are not yours. They aren’t going anywhere. You aren’t claiming them for anyone. They’re fucking children.”

  “And what is pathetic little Earth-bound you going to do to stop me, Temperance? You have no way to stop me. You could barely see what I was when you walked in. You couldn’t even sense me through the door.” He took a step forward and I did my best not to flinch as he did. “You have no way to stop me from taking these two.”

  The wall to my right shimmered and twitched, and a gout of black and red flame swirled up from the floor in a whirl of heat and speed. It took just a moment to coalesce into a form.

  Ellie.

  Her wings were wide and high, the sword I had been hoping for, was clenched in her right hand, a flaming thing alive and dangerous. She had black knee boots with red piping, black tights under a red skirt, and black short sleeved blouse with ladder-cut shoulders and a long-sleeved red turtleneck. Every part of her seemed to be touched with the black flames.

  She was magnificent.

  “Step it back, demon,” she snapped, her sword humming in the air.

  Pallino was clearly shocked she was there, but didn’t seem to be willing to step back. He gathered his wits quickly, and flashed her a smile. “Hello, versilange. Claimed for Elysium, I see?”

  “I am,” she answered, her tone firm. “And I am trained.”

  That caught his attention. “Trained? Who trained you? There are none who could train you here. Don’t tell me Temperance in her little guise here would dare try to train a versilange.” He started laughing.

  He choked a moment later when two more flames leapt up from the floor—one white, one black—and revealed both Laxmi and Miriam, without wings, but with their swords.

  Pallino dropped his jaw and hissed at my two friends. Their swords came up, and looked between them and Ellie in all her glory.

  “These children are not for you,” Ellie said.

  “They are!”

  “They are not ready,” Ellie stated. “They are too young, and when they are old enough, they will be claimed by the White. Leave here and never come back or I will remove you myself.”

  Laxmi and Miriam were grinning. They were happy with what she was doing. I was too—these were her brother and sister and she was defending them.

  Still wasn’t used to the magical shit, though.

  Or my daughter having wings.

  Holding out his hand one more time, he motioned to the twins. “Come with me.”

  They looked at each other and then turned back to him and chorused, “No!”

  “Go, or I’ll make you go.” Ellie’s sword cut the air again as she swept it up and held it at the ready.

  Pallino lunged at me and the twins. I gasped and stepped back, pressing them against me and pulling them along .

  Ellie took one step forward and swung the sword, slicing through the demon’s neck.

  He exploded in a shower of black and blazing red embers, landing in a pile where he had been standing just seconds before.

  I slumped as my breath escaped. “Shit.”

  “Sit,” Miriam said, running over to us, and guiding my butt to a bench.

  While I did, and pulled the twins up on my lap, I watched as Laxmi and Ellie walked around the room. They were doing something, speaking in very low tones about their task. Laxmi was teaching her something.

  “Mom?” Tim asked. “Is that really Ellie?”

  Miriam and I exchanged glances, and I nodded. “Yes. That’s Ellie.”

  “She’s an angel?” Tabi asked.

  I was glad when Miriam answered for me, “Mmm, kind of. She’s a versilange. A guardian. So am I, and so is Laxmi. Your sister and Laxmi are dark versilange. That just means that they are from a different part of the After. I’m a white versilange. And all of us work in pairs.”

  “Who is Ellie’s pair?” Tim asked.

  Miriam glanced at me quickly. “We don’t know yet. Ellie is a very young guardian. Laxi and I are teaching her how to be a good one, and it may be a long time before her pair shows up.”

  “Those swords are cool,” Tabi said.

  “The flameblades?” Miriam smiled.

  “I could have used one just now,” I grumbled.

  Miriam patted my shoulder. “You, Wren, did an amazing job with the two of them and kept them away from him.”

  Tim looked across to where Laxmi and Ellie were chatting. “You were bad ass, Sis!”

  Turning to find us on the bench, she smiled and gave him a thumbs up. Her sword and wings were gone, but she was still dressed to the nines.

  “How did you all get here?” I asked.

  “It’s part and parcel of the whole versilange thing. We can go places with a few words and sweep of power. We’d been working on it with Ellie, but she had been struggling. I guess she got over that real fast when…you were in trouble.”

  “Can she tell when I’m in trouble?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Vaguely, yes. But your panic was coming through strong and clear and
there was no missing it. Neither Laxi or I were in a position to get here to help you sooner. Ellie apparently was.”

  “Ooh,” I grumbled. “We’ll have to make sure that no one knows she’s gone AWOL from the school.” Thinking for a moment. I sighed. “You don’t happen to have one of those Men in Black flashy things?”

  Sebastian

  I straightened the stapler on the desk again. I was starting to piss myself off with all the little quirks and habits I was picking up.

  The first was the fact that I was now a lump of a human with no definition. But the idea of exercising sent me right back to high school and being the puny, frightened child that hid below the bleachers. I’d tried to use the weight room in those four years of hell, but I just kept getting picked off the benches and pushed the side.

  It was only when I finally got to college and met Victoria that I…

  I had to stop there. My throat was closing on the very idea of her.

  I fucking missed her so much. I missed the kids. I missed the stupid common core math Elliot was doing. I missed my whole fucking life.

  On a professional level, Wren Warner had done one of the best things that anyone could have done for me: given me a space. Not mentally, but physically. It wasn’t my old space and it wasn’t going to be my new one. It was a healing space. A space that allowed me to find out who I was without my family.

  But I was still a mess. I knew there was no limit to grief. We had to ride the waves where they took us. Some people compartmentalized and never thought on the dead. Some people spoke of them all the time, reveling in the joy they had brought the world. Some people were brought down and walked in sadness after that. Every one different, no one wrong.

  I would never be the same man I had been, but I had to figure out who I was going to be. That meant trying to get back into the world of psychology that I loved. Trying to integrate the loss of my wife and children into my every day. Trying to normalize the interaction with the police while they tried to find their killers.

  My first patient, one of my long-time patients, had the very first appointment at my tiny little office in the condo Wren and Lincoln had rented to me.