Chymaera's Overture: a Shadowed Ways novel

by A N Britton

  Kels nudged Kai, prompting him to provide directions to a spot up Silverado Canyon Road a ways. The military had already swept that area, and the population was sparse, so Kels figured it was as good a spot as any to enter the landscape. Though gray wolves were largely missing from the area, they were native and people would likely assume he was a largish dog and keep their distance. Not that he had much choice. The Keros-Ki behaved aggressively with anyone and anything not their kind. So distant cousins or not, if Kels wanted to get anywhere, he had to approach with his best wolf’s paw forward. This knowledge caused trepidation on Kai’s part, Kels was his best friend and running mate. It bothered him that Kels had to be on his own for this leg of the journey. Still, it made no sense to drag Chy (she had told them to stop calling her by her full name like an errant child) into more potential danger and stress

  Besides, she had her own agenda, and he’d promised her time to do her thing and say goodbye. Once they’d pulled off the road, Kels exited the truck without fanfare and disappeared into the brush. Kai watched for a minute while he resettled himself in the vacated space. Kels blended into his surroundings almost immediately, Kai turned to face Chy, “Okay, where are we going now?”

  She returned to the road, “It’s a surprise. If you don’t mind though, how exactly did a Thumbra and Keros-Ki hybrid happen? We don’t even talk to them around here.”

  Kai laughed. It was a common enough question when Thumbra met his Cuzzo. “Well, we don’t pal around much in my neck of the woods either. But Leah, my oldest sister is special. About 200 years ago she met Kels father, Avram, and he attacked her.”

  Chy shot him a sharp look.

  “No! Not like that!” Kai thought about his words, not wanting her to misunderstand. “See Avram was sick, poisoned, and it affected his neurological system, making him even more indiscriminately violent than the werebeasts usually are. Leah could have killed him, but she sensed his illness and decided she could heal him. Well, she restrained him, which is still a puzzle because restraining a rabid Keros-Ki isn’t anything I have a clue how to do, but she did it. She spent days purging him of the poison and eventually his desire to harm her left him as well. It was a big deal. The Keros-Ki are patriarchal and Avram was next in line to lead. Leah saving Avram’s life allows us to have an actual relationship with the werebeasts in our area. Leah and Avram have been together, off and on, since. Kels is their youngest son and the only one who doesn’t live with Avram. Leah and Avram are partnered, but neither can live full time with the other. It works for them though.”

  Chy made a noncommital sound and hooked a U-turn. Kai tried asking again, “So, where are we going?”

  She grinned with a mischievous glint in her eye, “Where aren’t we?” And off they sped. As she drove, he made a note of the military presence, it was sizable, but inert. They didn’t have a target, or even a lead, so they were in a holding pattern. They weren’t restricting movement within the affected area, just monitoring it. The news had instructed them to act as normally as possible. The police marked specific areas off with caution tape because of damage, but those spots were rare. As she drove, Kai saw military units less and less often. There were also more businesses open and people on the street.

  Chy made their first stop at a little hole in the wall taqueria in Santa Ana. He thought she was joking at first until she jumped out of the truck one second after she put it in park. He’d been to dives before, but this place looked like a shack. Still, he followed her in, and about 45 minutes later he emerged glad he had. Thumbras don’t have to eat, but they can appreciate a good meal of homemade tortillas filled with cabeza and lengua. The meal left them not full, but satiated.

  Following brunch, lunch - whatever that was, Chy drove in a manner that seemed aimless to Kai. Drifting through streets in Santa Ana, to Costa Mesa and down to Newport Beach. At times she slowed down without explanation, then drove off again. Once they hit PCH, she headed south. Along the way she’d closed the windows and plugged her iPhone into a dock on the not vintage dashboard. Ambient music washed over them in the quiet confines and created a somewhat somber mood. He couldn’t put his finger on why, but Kai didn’t want to break the silence, so he took in the beautiful scenery.

  After they hit Corona del Mar, Chy turned down a residential street and wove through a labyrinth of lanes. “Let’s walk for a while.” That’s all that proceeded her parking in front of a pretty good approximation of a French country chateau.

  Anticipating the beach and people, Kai adjusted his appearance, switching to flip-flops and making his clothing more fitted and less scruffy. Chy exited the truck but didn’t head in the direction of the water. Instead, she strolled down the block, looking at the houses. Each custom built home claimed beachfront access, but they weren’t what Kai had expected. Sure modern monstrosities and Mediterranean villas sat sprinkled throughout the block, but there was also a Tudor country cottage, complete with a semi wild looking English garden. The nuggets of individuality were surprising and well done. After a few blocks of wandering, she led him to a public path and stairs that brought them down to the beach. Given all that was going on, Kai didn’t expect the beach to be crowded, and it wasn’t, nor was it empty. Chy kicked across the sand until she reached a place he figured she was familiar with and found a rocky outcropping to sit on.

  Chy pushed her sunglasses up and looked at Kai, “Sorry for being a bitch yesterday. It’s just been a lot to deal with, but yeah, not your fault.”

  The acknowledgement caught Kai off guard. “No apologies needed. I’m the messenger, I get that. Besides, you made up for it with food.” He plopped himself into the sand in front of her.

  She laughed. Little more than a chuckle, but it was better than nothing. “I want to take in the view. Later, there is a place around here that’ll satisfy any sweet tooth, just to top you off.”

  He sat back, leaning on his arms. Hell, he was having a much better time than he’d expected to. And although he wasn’t in his preferred form, Kai took the time to do his daily meditation. Like that, they sat together while in different worlds for near an hour. The next thing he knew, Chy was squatting next to him and gently squeezing his shoulder.

  “Rise and shine.”

  “Ha, I wasn’t sleeping! I was meditating.”

  “Sure, sure!” She stood up and said, “Come on, I need ice cream.”

  After a quick trek back to the car and an even shorter drive, Chy pulled into a candy store. “Um, I thought you wanted ice cream?”

  Unperturbed, she winked, “You’ll see.”

  It was one of those, all-your-wishes-come-true-here kinds of places. Candy, cookies, cakes, and ice cream. Chy ran around the store assembling three different bags of assorted candies. He waited for her by the ice cream, pondering too many flavors. They both decided on milkshakes for the portability factor. She got Oreo cookie, and he got Root Beer Float. Thus equipped with various sweet confections, they continued south on PCH. Chy flew through Newport Beach, slowing down in Laguna before turning away from the coast and heading into the hills. They meandered through some odd bits before she stopped in front of what appeared to be an art gallery/studio.

  Inside was mostly photography of iconic California locations. Different photographers whose work was separated by decades, shown side by side, as if in a series. Kai wandered the space thinking how many Thumbras might appreciate pictures of their favorite places at different times throughout their lifespan. The problem being that most of their lifespans predated photographic film. While he looked at the various representations of the Mission San Juan Capistrano, Chy came up behind him and shyly touched his arm. He looked at her other hand; it held a small bundle wrapped in paper, larger than postcards, but small.

  “Just a little Cali to take with me.”

  He thought about his photo wall, shrugged and smiled. “We always take some of where we’ve been with us.”

  She beamed at him, glad she didn’t need to explain and headed back to the truck.
“Thanks for your patience with stuff today. I know it didn’t seem like much, but all these places meant something.”

  Once they were back on the road, she continued moving away from the beach and towards home. Kai guessed it was time to meet her friends.

  He lost track of time as the sun dipped towards dusk and they ventured to the canyons. They passed through the beige neighborhoods and the peach neighborhoods of planned communities. Then they drove through neighborhoods more similar to Chy’s, larger, older custom homes. Then they came to a manned iron gate.

  “Manolo’s parents are wealthy.”

  There was a pause at the gate; Manolo lived in a closed community and they had to wait while the guard confirmed on the phone that someone expected them. It surprised Kai that the guard didn’t recognize Chy until she admitted that most of the time she snuck in through the back.

  Once they pulled up to the house, Kai found himself awestruck by the obvious display of wealth. Most Thumbras had plenty of money, but they avoided ostentatious displays because they attracted too much attention. Not to mention envy, disgust, and anger. They were far more likely to appear about mid-level for the area they lived in. But Manolo’s parents, they lived on an estate. Hell, the front yard contained enough space to fit another house on. The Mcmansion was just, imposing, and overlarge. Frankly, it didn’t fit the landscape. Most of the homes in the area were Mediterranean or Spanish Mission in design. This was Neoclassical dreck, it looked like it wanted to smack you in the face with its gaudiness, it’s ‘I ran over the Joneses in my Rolls Royce Phantom’.

  Chy parked off to the side on the circular driveway and they got out. The front door opened before they even reached it. A middle-aged Hispanic woman smiled when Chy came into view.

  “Hello, Chy, Manolo is upstairs with your friend, Lyssa?”

  “Thank you, Ana. We’ll see ourselves up.” The interior was as ornate as the exterior, marble everywhere, but he didn’t catch more than a glimpse as he followed his charge up the stairs. She paused at an open door- as if to collect herself, turned to Kai and produced a slight smile before she turned back and headed in. He was a tad perplexed, but figured it was just best to follow her lead and in he stepped.

  At first everything was fine. Chymaera was all “Hi guys!” and the male, a Latino with telenovela good looks rushed over and bear-hugged her. A shorter, and paler, brunette in overalls followed with a mild hesitation.

  As they each held Chy, Kai made eye contact with each of them and his inner processors overloaded. Anger replaced an initial confusion.

  Keep calm. She wasn’t thinking. Keep your voice even.

  “Chy, you should have informed me.”

  Chy glanced at Kai for a brief second and then guiltily dragged her eyes to Manolo. Not that Kai noticed, his eyes were tracking Alyssa as she backed away from Chy while returning his glare.

  Chy stumbled over her words, “You can tell? I wasn’t sure you would be able to, but I don’t understand why it should matter.”

  Kai flashed her the most incredulous look he had ever twisted his face into, “You don’t think it matters she’s a witch? I’m sure she’s bound, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have worthwhile information!” Stepping forward, he fixed Alyssa with his coldest, most ‘do not lie’ stare, “What coven do you belong to?”

  There was silence. Chy and Manolo looked at each other and at Alyssa as her face turned crimson and her clenched hands went white.

  “No, no, no…”, accompanied with the shake of her head, Kai realized Chy hadn’t known about Alyssa. It made sense. Witches were human, and if you didn’t have Kai’s gift or the Keros-Ki ability to sniff them out, it required training and/or luck to identify them.

  “I’m sorry Chy.”

  Kai muttered the words while he sorted through all the info in the room. Manolo was a changeling which Chy seemed to know, and she was right, it didn’t matter. Changelings were the minions of angels and had a similar mandate as Thumbras. They didn’t harm humans and didn’t interfere with Thumbras. But this Manolo smelled of both young women in the room. The scent of Chymaera was deeply intertwined, friends and lovers both then. And for some time. As for Alyssa, it was sharp, new–it hadn’t sunk in yet. A new something more than friendship and a fresh betrayal? But Kai didn’t get the impression that Alyssa had been any more forthcoming with Manolo than she had been with Chy. Just as he reached for Chy’s shoulder, to offer a brief squeeze, she lunged for Alyssa and fuck all if she didn’t have claws as she did it.

  “No!”

  Manolo got there just before Kai did, but he didn’t have a good grip. It forced Kai to extend his arm to reach Chy and yank her back.

  “Is it true? Goddamn it Lyssa! Is it fucking true? What do you know?”

  Animosity contorted her face as she attempted to drag Kai with her, focused only on reaching the cowering girl.

  “Chy, you have got to stop! We need to talk, what the hell is going on here?”

  She was snarling and hissing, words sliding out on a forked tongue, “’My Nana, Manolo some witch got to her and she is gone! Gone!” One last brutal surge of strength forward and Kai brought all his force to bear and contained her. She slumped to the floor as though the fight left her. Kai fell with her only to extricate himself as she heaved with dry sobs.

  “I swear Chy, this wasn’t my coven’s doing, and I didn’t know it was your Grandmother!”

  Manolo’s head spun, “So this is true, you’re a witch?” There was so much hurt and accusation in his tone that Kai almost recoiled on the poor girl’s behalf, not that it altered his next steps.

  He ran right over the unnecessary confirmation, “But you knew it was a Thumbra yesterday, likely someone in Chy’s clan?”

  “I realized that, but not until after! The energy pulse was first, but then, whatever it was happened and I lost consciousness just like everyone else. It wasn’t until way later when I was awake that I had time to perceive the change in myself and grasp the reason why. I am from Bogdani coven, our loyalty to the Queen goes back over a millennium. There’s no way that anyone who shares my bloodline had anything to do with this!”

  “But you knew, what Chymaera was, and you thought it was prudent to not tell her what you were for all these years? That alone violates your oath!”

  “It isn’t my fault I was born a witch! I just wanted to have a friend, and I didn’t want her to think I had any ulterior motives for it! Damn it! I met her before I took the fucking oath! Chy, I am so sorry, but you have to believe me! I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, or your family.”

  Chy sat up, but didn’t meet her eyes. “On some level I know you had nothing to do with what happened to my Nana. I will not burden you with that crime, but all these fucking years. I thought you were both just human, and you allowed my misunderstanding. You knew what I was, there was little to no danger in telling me your natures, but you didn’t. You fucking lied, for years. And you Lyssa, this is the second time you have claimed to have no desire to hurt me while withholding information you had to recognize would do exactly that.”

  Manolo paced the room, rubbing his face so hard it was a shock the skin wasn’t peeling off. “If I had understood how this would hurt you, I would have told you about myself sooner. Sua tristeza pesa sobre o meu coracao.”

  Her sorrow weighs on my heart.

  Alyssa had gone from white, to red and was now a muted gray. She locked her shaking knees and closed her eyes as if a death blow were imminent.

  “It doesn’t matter Manolo. Not anymore. This is my old life. I came here to say goodbye, anyway; I was going to promise to stay in touch, but there is no point to that now. Kai, get me out of here, please.” Her eyes were begging him.

  He lifted her to her feet and noticed she clung to him for a moment longer than was necessary. He sincerely hoped nothing else would be taken from her as he didn’t think she had the emotional reserves to handle much more.

  “Wait, Chy! What are you saying? Who is this guy?
Where are you going?”

  “Please, you aren’t stupid. Kai is Thumbra as well and my parents are shipping me off so some crazy bitch witch doesn’t murder me! He is clan and family, and he is taking me to my new home tonight.”

  Manolo was in her face in less than a heartbeat. “You are right to feel angry, hurt and betrayed, but don’t leave like this! She fucked up. We fucked up, but we love you. We have always been friends. If it is safer for you to leave then leave, but don’t travel with hate in your heart. Give it time and contact me when you are ready.” Kai didn’t imagine the scene could have been more bizarre; Chymaera’s back was pressed against him as Manolo held her face in his hands and touched his forehead to hers. “I have spent several lifetimes being foolish, I thought I had learned a few things. I was wrong and I am so sorry.”

  Alyssa, perhaps realizing she wasn’t about to die, opened her eyes, but she stood motionless, except for the spasms of her torso as tears made their silent escape.

  “I can’t, I can’t… anymore of this.” Chy gulped air she didn’t need just to retain some sense of composure.

  “Shhh, Shhh. It’s OK, Chy, not now. Just don’t say never.” He kissed her forehead and backed away, brushing tears of his own from his cheeks.

  Kai held Chy by her arm and waist as he guided her out of the room. As they reached the doorway, a sob filled “Chymaera!” filled the air. It was Alyssa, and it was the most mournful sound he had ever heard. Chy didn’t pause, didn’t look back.