Time's Daughter

by Anya Breton

  The dining room was massive by my standards but I could tell by the place settings on the table that it was tiny by theirs. Ten spots were free for ten people. The family could never have a sit down meal with more than one guest at a time without someone being left off the table.

  For a family of supernatural creatures, they seemed to have a thing for glass. The dining room was set between walls with exposed beams and a bank of French doors overlooking the lake that shimmered in the setting sun. Exposed rafters with two rustic iron chandeliers hung above the table and matched the candelabras on either end. Each place setting had a cream colored plate, far too many forks, a dark orange napkin with iron holder and a matching dark orange suede cushion on the seat.

  Abby was busy filling glasses with ice water as Anna bustled around the attached kitchen and Arnie sat waiting at the foot of the table. I was guided around the long table and then my arm was gently released. Arthur pulled out the chair beside the head of the table as if I were supposed to sit there.

  I send another glance at Alex. He gave me a barely perceptible nod. I took it as the sign that I was supposed to sit where they put me so I settled myself down. The Chattan men took the seats on either side of me. As I’d expected Arthur sat at the head of the table while Alex sat beside me.

  But something told me I had someone else’s seat. I hoped it wasn’t someone who despised me. I doubted the fact that their leader had personally seated me would help any.

  Alex’s hand sought mine out beneath the table. I clung to it tightly for support. So far the visit had been a success but I was positive it wouldn’t stay that way.

  Anna and Abby brought ceramic dishes filled with steaming goodness in twos. From where I sat I could see identical bowls of mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, seasoned pork, and glazed carrots on both ends of the table. The last item the ladies brought were baskets of rolls.

  Anna took the seat across from me after setting the basket down. And Abby sat beside her grandfather near the kitchen door.

  Anna’s head leaned back so she could shout. “Soup’s on!”

  Not so much as a peep emitted from Alex when I squeezed his hand with all my might as footsteps pounded on the stairs. Instead he covered my hand with both of his so that he could rub the skin over my knuckles lightly. I tried to concentrate on it instead of the impending awkwardness.

  A man I didn’t know stopped suddenly in the doorway. His head pulled back as if in surprise. “Wow, Drew. You got prettied up for dinner.”

  Alex’s older brother Drew smacked the newcomer upside the head as he shoved by him from behind to take the seat beside Alex.

  The newcomer stepped to the chair near Anna and held his hand out to me. “You must be the girlfriend we’ve heard so much about. I’m Aaron, Arthur’s youngest brother.”

  I shook it lightly and responded with a quiet volume. “Aeon.”

  “Good to finally meet the girl behind all the fuss.” He nodded firmly then moved down to take the seat across from Abby.

  I was dismayed that he’d sat so far away. The conversation I’d overheard in the garage replayed in my head. Aaron had defended Arthur’s decision. The defender should have sat closer.

  When I’d begun thinking everyone who was intending to dine with us had arrived, the final two family members appeared at the door. The male’s attention was fixed on the female at his side and her attention was fixed on me. Her eyes appeared dark as she glared at me from beneath lowered kohl lashes that matched the color of her long hair.

  Arthur cleared his throat loudly. The male’s eyes snapped to the head of the table. They then switched to me.

  “Hello,” the man greeted with a sober nod. “I’m Antonio.”

  He didn’t explain his connection to the family before walking further into the room and taking the seat beside Aaron. The family resemblance was so strong that I guessed he was another of Arnold’s sons.

  “That is my sister, Alicia,” Anna spoke without turning. “Won’t you sit, my dear?”

  “If I must,” the woman spoke with an icy tone in her deep voice while continuing to eye me warily.

  “It would please me,” Arthur smiled at no one in particular.

  “And we must always please you.”

  “Alicia!” Anna snapped angrily.

  The woman inhaled sharply before stepping forward to take the seat beside her sister. I lowered my eyes to my plate to avoid her pointed glare. I didn’t know if I was witnessing a rare occurrence or a long-standing feud. Alex squeezed my hand with both of his. I glanced over and forced an uneasy smile for him.

  Arthur picked up the plate of seasoned pork to choose a slice. With a grin he started a new, lighter conversion. “Why don’t you tell us about the games you played, Abby?”

  We were regaled with tales of Wii bowling for ten minutes while the food was passed around. The males on either side of me had loaded my plate up with food. I kept my head down, picking at it in silence. By the close of Abby’s story everyone had relaxed except the female who didn’t wish to be there and me.

  “So tell me, Aeon,” Anna began the inevitable questioning of me. “What subject do you enjoy most at school?”

  I set my fork down on the edge of the plate, put my hands in my lap atop the cloth napkin and then answered. “Drawing.”

  Her lips lifted upward. “An artist. How nice. I enjoyed art most in school as well.”

  “Aeon also excels at photography,” Alex told her proudly.

  Anna chuckled. “So you’ve said.” Her lips lifted into the mischievous grin I’d seen on his lips. “What subject does my son excel at most?”

  Alex snorted. I wondered why she felt the need to ask. They seemed like a close-knit group. Surely she already knew the answer.

  I gave her an answer anyway. “Alex seems to excel at everything.”

  He turned toward me to grumble. “I do not.”

  I ignored him to continue. “He aces pop quizzes in A.P. History, needs no help in the darkroom and wins just about every game for his team in physical education class. Those are the only subjects I have personal experience with.”

  “I didn’t win the game today,” he muttered while pushing around potatoes on his plate.

  Arthur asked the next question. “What did you play today?”

  “Basketball.”

  Drew guffawed from the other end of the table. “Yeah, he sucks a basketball.”

  “Do you have much family, Aeon?”

  I turned toward Arthur, the speaker. “No, it’s just me and my mother.”

  Abby’s head peeked from around Drew. “Just you two? Wow. It must be quiet.”

  “It is,” I admitted. “But Christmas is cheaper.”

  My lame attempt at a joke was met with polite laughs. I dropped my eyes to my plate and tried to take the fork back up.

  “We place great importance on family,” Arthur told me. “This is my entire living family with the exception of some cousins on my mother’s side.”

  I shook my head in awe.

  His tone warmed as he continued, “We’re lucky to be able to pool our resources together to be able to afford a place large enough to fit us all.”

  “It is a beautiful home,” I said quietly. It had seemed like the polite thing to say. It also helped that it was the truth.

  “It will be better when we’re finished with it,” Drew added.

  Bravely I caught his and tried to keep the conversation going. “What will you do to it?”

  “I’m installing cat five, cable and central stereo connections in every room.”

  I nodded as if I understood what Alex’s brother had said.

  “We should let her eat,” Anna interrupted with a motherly tone. “How is the work going on the Shipley’s condo?”

  Arthur’s answer was all business. “We’ll have it done tomorrow. I’ve got an appointment with Sam Denoncourt on Wednesday.”

  The food on my plate held my attention even though I wasn’t hungry. Contemplating what
seasoning was used in the roasting of the pork was keeping my mind off the fact that a woman was glaring at me across the table. What little I’d had swallowed of it was delicious but I didn’t think I could eat more. I still felt sick to my stomach from the anxiety of meeting Alex’s massive family.

  Business discussion ended quickly and was replaced by what activity the family would be doing the next weekend. Anna took suggestions. Abby piped up with a vote for Wii bowling that was met by groans all around. Drew suggested a trip to Burlington. But it was Alex’s idea that interested his mother most.

  “Apple picking,” Alex said firmly.

  Anna’s face lit into a stunning smile. “Fresh apples right off the tree. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  “On Sunday,” he added.

  “Sunday?”

  “So Aeon can go with us.”

  I set my fork down but didn’t look up.

  The suggestion wasn’t immediately discounted. Instead Anna added to it. “Perhaps she can invite her mother to come with us.”

  My face paled. The thought of introducing my mother to a clan of shapeshifters made me queasy. I tried to get the color back in my cheeks through sheer force of will so that they wouldn’t know how I truly felt.

  Carefully I replied, “I will see if she’s off that day.”

  Mom often worked a few hours on the weekends but it wasn’t all that consistent and relied on regulars’ appointments.

  “Since it was your idea Alex, you are in charge of research.”

  He nodded in agreement.

  Anna gestured toward the nearly empty bowls in front of her. “Drew, Aaron, and Antonio are on dish duty tonight. The sooner we get it cleaned up, the sooner we get cookies.”

  The pressure at my hand made me look over at Alex. He slid off his chair on the edge closest to me then stood. I let him pull me to my feet with him.

  “We’ll be out back until then,” Alex informed them while tugging me to the door.

  Anna nodded at him as she lifted the plate of pork up to take with her into the kitchen. “Okay, hon. Take a sweater.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  I eagerly followed him through the house to the room with the fireplace and onto the deck outside. The further we got from the dining room the more relaxed I got. But when we stepped out into the chill, took the stairs down and walked down the pebble path toward the lake my teeth began chattering.

  Alex slowed to face me, concern filled his handsome features. “You’re freezing.”

  I let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t think I am.”

  His hands slid along my arms. “You’re right, you aren’t. It must be nerves.” Alex pulled me forward until my head was resting against his chest. “Thank you for coming. I know this was hard for you. Was it as bad as you thought?”

  “Are they always like that?”

  “Like what?”

  “So…perfect?”

  “Perfect?” Alex laughed in disbelief. The sound of it rumbled the chest beneath my cheek. “You think that’s perfection?”

  I pulled back to see if he was joking. My eyebrows knit in confusion when I saw that he wasn’t. “Yes. I do. I mean, that was like Leave it to Beaver except no one said, ‘golly gee, Pa’.”

  “I guess they were well behaved today,” he admitted then laughed upon recalling something humorous. “Usually rolls are flying, people are arguing over the last slice of meat and no one agrees on the weekend activity.”

  My head shook quickly in disbelief. “You guys really do a weekend activity every week?”

  “We try. Doesn’t always work out.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s insane.”

  “What?” He sounded a little embarrassed.

  “That you guys are…well…so different, and yet so perfect.”

  “We’re not perfect,” Alex insisted while his face moved from side to side. “Did you forget about the aunt?”

  “No, I didn’t,” I answered in a flat voice. “What is her deal anyway?”

  “Long story.” He took hold of my hand, lifted it outward then tugged lightly on it until I was forced to walk forward. “Come on, let’s sit by the water until they send Abby after us.”

  Abby was one Chattan I wouldn’t be upset to see. I made certain to admit, “Your sister is adorable.”

  “Nothing like me, eh?”

  A snicker left me before I could stop it.

  “She adores you,” he chuckled in return. “I can tell. The minute you leave she’s going to be hounding me to have you back over.”

  I blurted the question out before I realized what I was doing. “Why does she have light hair when you all have dark?”

  “Well,” he paused as he helped me sit down on the edge of the dock. “She’s the opposite of melanistic. She takes after her albino grandmother on our mother’s side.”

  “That’s neat,” I murmured.

  The dock was soothing. Moonlight cast a blue glow over everything including us. Gentle sloshing of the water against the dock gave me something calming to concentrate on. I closed my eyes to intensify the sound. Several deep breaths of lake air did me wonders.

  He’d gone so quiet that I was concerned he wasn’t breathing. I turned my head and opened my eyes. Alex had been watching me silently with an unreadable expression. I tried to smile for him.

  Rather than smile back he slid his hand beneath my hair along the base of my neck to pull me closer. A shiver of sensation slipped down my back from where he’d touched.

  His warm breath caressed my mouth before his lips did. Vaguely I recalled him gathering me into his arms to chase away any chills that remained from meeting his family. It was soothing enough that I let my eyes shut with a content sigh.

  A catlike scream tore from his chest a moment later as his arms tore away from me. My eyes shot open. Alex was crouched with his back to me staring up at a seven-foot creature that sported ragged clothing and sallow skin. The creature’s lips were torn and blackened lips. It seemed to be missing eyelids around its frighteningly dark eyes. And there was absolutely nose left on its face. I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from screaming.

  “I’m going to shift, Aeon,” he told me above a growl a moment before he seemed to sneeze. Up close the transformation was even more unbelievable than it had been behind the bush. But my attention was fixed on the thing in front of us as it lunged for me now that Alex was decidedly shorter and furrier.

  The black panther pounced at it. His momentum, even with the short distance, was enough to knock the thing back. But it wouldn’t be stopped. With hand over hand on the dock’s planks the thing clawed toward us. I stepped backward toward the lake with my eyes fixed on its corpse-like hands.

  A low warning growl announced the cat’s intentions in his momentarily hunkered down pose. The feline scream echoed in the night as he sailed through the air to land atop the creature. Ferocious snapping and tears made me gnaw on my fingers. I didn’t know if I was frightened for Alex or the thing he was attacking.

  With a broad swing of its arm the creature sent the cat into my chest like a canon ball. We both went over the dock’s edge into the water in a tangle of fur and limbs. The frigid temperature knocked the breath from me in an instant. Down we went into the murky depth beneath the surface.

  Thanks to the shoes, skirt and shirt I was wearing, I was weighed down more than the cat and fell far faster. I could see the shadow of him above me in the moonlight and that he was trying to get to me.

  Something warm slid beneath me and before I knew it I’d surfaced above the water. I immediately sputtered for air. A rough cough racked my lungs from the small bit of liquid that had entered them before I’d had a chance to close my mouth. Once I’d drawn in a breath of air I made myself swim for the shore.

  Snarling beside me drew my attention as I crawled onto the mud. A dripping black panther was hunkered down at the end of the dock readying to attack the creature that even now was turning toward me. In confusion I looked at the soaked
cat on the dock and the one beside me on the mud.

  My companion eyed me long enough to make sure I was well before padding away from the shore into the grass. In the brief moment I’d looked in its eyes, I knew the cat that had helped me to the shore had not been Alex. That meant Alex had crawled out of the water back onto the dock to finish what he’d started.

  I pulled myself up on unsteady legs to survey the situation. Surely the other cat had gone into the grass so that it could double back to the dock. Any moment now it would hop onto the wood and the fight would be over before it had started. Wouldn’t it?

  I wiped the moisture from my eyes, focused my vision in the direction the cat had gone and stared in horror when the figures sharpened. Seven midnight black cats were crowded at the foot of the dock while one smaller white cat hung further back. The gathering was blocked from stepping onto the dock by a single horizontal figure: a panther with gray threaded fur.

  Chattering from the frigid water and furious at what I was seeing, I stalked toward them while shouting. “Why aren’t you helping him?” My arm extended behind me to point to where Alex had just used the creature’s lunge toward me as leverage to knock it over again.

  The only answer I got was a low growl from the gray threaded cat.

  Another feline scream from the dock tore at my heart. I tried to shove my way through the furry backs to get back onto the dock but something held me back. I glanced behind to see that one of the larger panthers had taken hold of my skirt in its mouth.

  With a quick yank I tore the delicate fabric from its teeth. “You can stay back here like cowards but I’m helping.”

  Even without a nose our attacker smelled me. The mangled body struggled to drag itself toward me while the cat clawed at its head from atop its back. I didn’t know what I was going to do but I knew it wanted me, not Alex. I stomped loudly across the wood, kicked it in whatever was closest. Working on instinct alone I reached down to grab onto some part of it. It sat up and reached for me too.

  In a guttural voice I made a single demand. “You stop.”

  The black cat continued its abuse for two minutes longer before stepping back with a confused snort. The creature had literally stopped with a hand still hanging in the air and its chest posed at a thirty-degree angle. The water lapped gently against the dock proving that time wasn’t frozen. I tested it by walking backwards a few steps. It didn’t follow or make any noise at all. The cat pawed the thing a few times to no effect. Somehow I had frozen only the creature without affecting time itself.