Infinitely Human

by Candace Blevins

  “Who did you torture?”

  He shook his head, and I took a guess. “Someone you’d once loved?” His expression told me I was on the right track. “Fuck, Nathan. That would mess anyone up. I’m sorry you were put in that position. Couldn’t anyone else have done it?”

  “She was my responsibility. I’d brought her into it, so when she proved a mole, I was the one who had to…” He finally let my face go and looked away. “It broke something in me. I became the person who tortured, for a while. I was headed towards evil when Aaron befriended me and brought me back. If he hadn’t, I’d be in league with the Prince of Hell, as my predecessor was.”

  The therapist in me wanted to ask if there was a danger of him going back to that place, so he’d answer that he knew better now, knew how to stay away from the kinds of people who’d start leading him down that road, so he was almost there before he realized, but my instincts told me he was finished talking about it and he’d shut down if I tried to draw more out of him.

  “Okay. I’m here to listen, anytime.”

  He stood and walked to the window. “I hear a car. The first one I’ve heard since we arrived.”

  “It’s white, and tiny. I have no idea what it is. It sounded like a Volkswagen Bug from the sixties, and it was about as big, but car shaped.”

  “It turned down the driveway.” A few heartbeats, and, “It’s him. I’ll step out and meet him. He might shoot first and ask questions later if we’re in here and he isn’t expecting us to be.”

  Good point, though I had a feeling the slayer had more discipline with his weapons than that.

  I followed Nathan out, because I didn’t trust him not to take this opportunity to share secrets with Ryan that he hadn’t told me.

  And that probably said more about our not-relationship than I wanted to consider at the moment.

  But Nathan’s first question to Ryan was, “Why didn’t you kill him?”

  And I almost took a step back, because Nathan was right. Slayers kill monsters who kill humans, and Gabby’s dad had killed a lot of human women.

  “Because we need to ask him some questions before he dies.”

  Nathan crossed his arms. “You know he’ll go back to the Concilio, to be sold again, once we’ve asked our questions.”

  Ryan met his gaze. “And depending upon who gets him, he’ll either be rehabilitated or worse when they finish with him, but for the time being he’s contained and that’s good enough for me.”

  Nathan eyed him. Considering. “You’ll be splitting the two point four million dollars with Kirsten and Cora. If he gets away again, you’ll get paid for catching him again.”

  “My deal was with Kirsten. She brought Cora in. If she wants to split her half with Cora, that’s up to her.”

  I was inclined to put that money towards the Pack. Seed money for whatever else came up that needed cash, but I’d talk to Cora about it later.

  “We should get back,” I told them.

  Nathan nodded. “Take us to the holding cell beside Lepori’s. It’s empty.”

  I sighed. I needed to talk to Ryan without Nathan around, so I told them, “I’d rather do this one at a time. I’ll take Nathan first, so the Control Room doesn’t have a cow, and then Ryan.”

  Ryan nodded his assent, and I took Nathan, made sure he had his balance before I let go, and went right back to Ryan.

  “Anything else I need to know?” I asked Ryan.

  “I questioned a few guards. Griffin didn’t own him. He was being paid to house him. None of the guards knew who owned him. They’d had him five months.”

  “How much of that will you tell Nathan?”

  He glanced out all the windows, still on guard. “All of it. I have no reason to keep it from him.”

  “What are you keeping to yourself?”

  “No bears. No wolves. No honey badgers. Crocs and birds. Doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but it’s food for thought. We should go or Nathan will ask questions.”

  He was keeping something to himself, but asking more questions wasn’t likely to make him answer.

  I wrapped my arms around him and took us to Nathan.

  The door was already open when we arrived in the holding cell, with Cora and Nathan standing in the hallway, waiting for us. Nathan gave me a look that clearly said he wasn’t happy it’d taken so long, but he didn’t say anything about it.

  Nathan looked to Ryan. “Cora says he needs to go to our Alabama holding unit. She says he needs sunshine.”

  “Who will question him? I assume you’ll handle that before he’s moved?”

  “Kendra and Abbott are on their way. Kendra will be in the room with him, with Abbott upstairs watching on video.”

  “And if the Concilio shows up before you’re finished?”

  “They won’t find him here. As long as everyone’s circumspect, we should have at least a few days. Aaron can hold them off forty-eight hours, but I’m betting they’ll need to call a meeting and we won’t hear from them for at least that long.”

  Ryan nodded. “I’d like to observe the questioning and have access to read the report.”

  “Of course,” said Nathan.

  25

  The next ten hours are a blur. We found out Caligula had purchased him, but Lepori seemed to think both Caligula and Griffin owned him, as if perhaps an old debt was being paid. However, Lepori was certain his only legal owner was Caligula, through the Concilio.

  Caligula is now known as Omar Salieri, though he seemed to just be Omar to most people, like Cher is just Cher. No last name needed.

  Both Griffin and Caligula had been especially cruel to the serial killer, but I had a hard time feeling sorry for him. Karma’s only a bitch if you are.

  Still, it was bad. Most of the time, torturing a psychopath makes them worse. Shock therapy in the fifties and sixties gave a whole generation of mentally ill sadists more ideas about how to torture their victims.

  So, the practical therapist in me saw the reason for holding him underground, to be damned sure he was never let loose on the public again, and yet I loved Cora even more for having him sent to a facility where he could have some daylight and still be held securely.

  Kendra and Abbott questioned him the rest of the night, and then all of the following night, and he was transported to wherever they were keeping him in Alabama the next day. I’m told Ryan helped escort him to his new cage before taking off to goodness knows where.

  Meanwhile one point two million dollars showed up in my bank account, along with a statement overnighted from a New York based attorney, showing it as money left to me by a mentor, along with a copy of the will. There was a note about future monies coming to me once his land and other holdings were sold, which meant Ryan assumed we’d work together again, and he was arranging to have a reason to send money to me again.

  Cora agreed we could use the funds as seed money for the Pack, but she wanted it to go in a joint account, so we could both access it.

  Once the basement and sub-basement were covered, and the tunnel to the containers under the hill hidden, and the saferooms in the center of the house installed with the walls around them to hide them, Randall could bring his full crew in to work on the big house.

  It wasn’t even close to ready to move into by the next full moon, but the original farmhouse was finished, and we had plenty of room on the porch to comfortably entertain the wolves and their significant others.

  I was present when Randall gave Cora the oathing ceremony to make her an Alpha, and then I was present when the wolves all joined in our meadow, with Cora, Ranger, and Kenny on the huge stone boulder. I sat with Bethany, Jonathan, and the rest of the family members, just behind the wolves about to oath in.

  Cora talked to them all from the boulder, and I could feel her. They were giving her energy even before oathing to her. She vibrated with it.

  When she grasped Ranger and Kenny’s hands to levitate the three of them off the rock, she didn’t pull from me, as she’d normall
y do. Her wolves gave her all she needed.

  And I was at peace with this. Her wolves. Our family.

  The men and women about to oath to her stripped and put their clothes into cubbies built below the benches we’d placed in front of the boulder, arranged in an arc like you’d see at an outdoor theater.

  And then, one by one, each person kneeled before her, said their oath, bared their neck, let her bleed them a little, gave her their willpower, their soul, their everything, and finally changed.

  Cora was the last to change, and she led her new Pack into the woods for their first full moon run.

  I’ve been present for more than a half-dozen full moon runs at Randall’s, but they didn’t compare to what I felt on this night, bathed in the energy of Cora’s Pack. When the wolves were gone, it was my job to be hostess for the humans and other shifters, but I was speechless.

  It was Jonathan, helping Bethany deal with her tears, that snapped me back to reality. We were all crying, even the bird and cat shifters we had present, but especially the humans.

  I stood, walked ten steps forward, and turned to face them. “We’re all family now. Family takes care of each other. If you’re driving home, get something to drink and make sure you’re fully grounded first, please. Those of you either sleeping on the porch, or in a tent, please let me know if you need anything. You’ll find extra blankets in the chest on the porch, beside the back door.”

  At Randall’s, the land itself is soaked with Pack energy, and I’d assumed it would take years before our land felt the same, but I sensed more than I’d expected, on this first night.

  Still nothing like the power of Randall’s land, but it was already… I searched my mind for the right word. Sacred was close, but not quite it. Sanctified? No. All the words I could think of had too many religious connotations.

  I slept in the master suite alone, with Bethany and Jonathan in the guest room beside me. The other guest room housed kids — shifter kids who hadn’t had their first change, with both mom and dad now in wolf form, running through the woods. Usually, the mom and dad run on different nights, and take turns watching the kids. Or grandparents watch them one night, and parents another. However, since the entire pack was running as one tonight, we had kids to watch over.

  Cora had brought in someone from Randall’s pack to take care of the kids, just in case one chose this night for their first change. No one thought the oldest two were that close, but they said a human couldn’t be responsible for them, just in case. So, the girls were on pallets on the floor on one side of the room, the boys on the other, and the adult got the bed.

  Most of the spouses went home, but three camped out in tents, and five brought a sleeping bag and curled up on one of the sofas on the porch.

  I could sense Cora’s wolf, running through the forest, exhilarated. Her Pack. Her wolves. Her land. The wolf could feel them all, knew their strengths and weaknesses, knew who needed encouragement and who to depend on to make the kill when they scented a deer. I went to sleep feeling the energy of the Pack — strong, secure, stable, and exhilarated.

  I awakened to the smell of bacon, sausage, and steaks on the grill. I spent ten minutes on teeth, makeup, and hair, slid into jeans and a shirt, and ventured outside. Jonathan was manning the grill, the kids were putting out plates and silverware, and several women were in the kitchen preparing eggs, gravy, biscuits, and waffles.

  The morning wasn’t as magical as the night before, but I still felt the Pack’s energy, even from a distance, but even more when they started returning in human form, hungry and happy after letting their inner animal out to run and hunt and play.

  Mordecai arrived while we were all happily eating. He walked in from the woods, and I assumed he’d stepped into them and then walked up, instead of appearing out of thin air, but then I wondered if he’d perhaps watched the ceremony and kept tabs on the energy. I knew a lot of supernaturals were wondering what would happen with Cora and me. A few had posited that she’d be in control of me, but most assumed I’d take over whatever power she acquired.

  No one wanted to understand that we’re partners.

  The energy at breakfast was good, and I’d mostly settled into it. It was a similar magic to the energy at Randall’s, but different. Cora was at a different table, sitting with some of the weaker wolves, and I sat with Kenny, Ranger, Bethany, Jonathan, and others from Drake Security. Mordecai sat with Cora, but our table was full.

  It was a Thursday, but most of the members had taken a day off work — joining a new Pack is a big deal, and they knew they’d need to stick around some to bond more the next day.

  After breakfast, Cora levitated up and sat on a little platform we’d situated for just this reason. It was about eight feet higher than the floor, and she could both see and be seen by everyone.

  “We’ve all heard about the coming battle between good and evil. I hope we have a few full moons under our belt before we’re asked to fight, but we don’t know for sure we’ll have that luxury. Many of us are warriors who’ll be part of a Drake operation, but we’ll have a way for everyone to contribute — even those not interested in fighting.”

  She met Bethany’s gaze a few seconds, and then looked around the room again. “Pack and family-of-Pack are welcome to train with us — we’ll be doing so on the field in a few moments. If you want to be a support person, Bethany’s going to talk to you about some of the duties we need filled while ya’ll clean up from breakfast. I’ll sit down with all of you later today, and we’ll hand out jobs and discuss what training you may need. In many cases, you’ll just need to be made familiar with inventory and procedure, which will probably take from ten minutes to an hour.”

  She looked at Ranger. “Ask your question.”

  “Jonathan can fight, do you want him to train with us?”

  “He’s your family. Totally up to your family to decide. Odds are, he’ll be working in a totally different location while we fight, however, if it happens he’s with us, it’ll be good for him to know how we work together.”

  “I assume I’ll be in Faerie once the big battle starts here,” Jonathan agreed. “But if we’re caught unawares and I’m with the Pack, I’d love to fight with ya’ll.” He shrugged. “Most of you’ve fought together already. You’re going to make a formidable unit.”

  “There are things Cora and I can do together that those who’ll fight with us need to be aware of,” I said. Later, once everyone else had gone home, Cora and I were going to try to join with Kenny and Ranger. If we could pull it off, then all four of us might be able to handle light weapons. Probably not right away, but it was something to work towards.

  “Mordecai, are you just here for breakfast, or do you intend to stick around?” Cora asked.

  “I wanted to feel the energy of your new Pack. With your leave, I’d like to watch you train, but I’ll do so from a distance, so I don’t interfere.”

  “How does our energy feel?” she asked.

  He considered his answer a few seconds. “It doesn’t feel brand new, but you have a ways to go before everyone fully settles into it. Still, I’ve felt larger packs who’ve been established a year or more who weren’t as strong and intertwined as yours.” He looked around the room and back to Cora. “I know this was more about the wolves choosing an Alpha than the Alpha picking the wolves, so I’ll congratulate all of you on choosing well.”

  Apollonius appeared out of thin air, not far from Cora but facing Mordecai. “Indeed. The Pack is formidable already, before they’ve even officially trained together once.” He gave a slight bow to Cora. “Forgive the intrusion, but like Mordecai, my curiosity got the better of me. I’ll need to observe you and Kirsten together sometime in the next seven days, because I’m tasked with reporting on any changes.”

  Ranger stood and faced Apollonius. “Please refrain from entering amongst us like that in the future. I have no idea if any of us are capable of harming you or not, but I came close to blowing your head off.”

 
“He has a point,” Cora said. “You’re welcome here, of course, but a less flashy entry would be better.” She looked around the room. “Apollonius and Mordecai created the lock, so people can’t just appear here, but this means the two of them can come and go as they please. Those wishing to fight with us, please remain seated. Those wishing to act as support in a non-violent capacity, please move to the kitchen.”

  Fifteen minutes later, the fighters were on the field and everyone else had a job to do in the house.

  Cora is a born leader and teacher. She started out having people spar each other, so we could all get an idea of strengths and weaknesses, and then she put together sparring teams, three against three, five against five, and eventually, five against three, and even ten against four at one point.

  I merely watched during this part, but I learned much about the new wolves who were now part of my family.

  They were Cora’s, which meant they were mine, too. Just as she’d do whatever it took to protect Lauren, I’d do whatever I had to in order to protect Pack.

  I think my grandfathers viewed an oath as sacrosanct — something that weighed on your soul. I’m not sure how our modern society has lost this, but in the supernatural world, it’s still very much the way everyone feels. It’s true the oath was made real with metaphysics or magic or whatever, but still, it had bound these men and women in ways most modern-day humans can’t fathom.

  Near the end of the training session, Cora and I joined our energy. I made her a light knife, and I made myself a fighting staff. I also demonstrated my laser. Cora wanted them to understand why I’d be fighting at her side, and I believe our little exhibition did the job.

  When we’d seen the last wolf off the property later in the evening, both Mordecai and Apollonius were waiting for us on the screened-in porch when we returned.

  “You’ve grown in strength.”

  I couldn’t tell how Apollonius felt about this. Something seemed off, and I went on alert.

  “I’m still me, with the same morals and ideals.”