Relinquished Hood

by Kendrai Meeks

  His face blossomed into glee. “Oh, Ms. Rosenthorn is wonderful. I’ve learned so much from her this summer. I hope you’re still not upset that she snatched me away from you.”

  “Not at all. You clearly had the skill set she needed.”

  Jess’s skill set: young, semi-athletic, easily enthralled, happy to be a blood buffet.

  Jess turned toward me, reaching to take my hand as well. “Gary Kline, right? I think we met in Ms. Rosenthorn’s office a few weeks ago.”

  “Geri, actually. Sorry, but I just handled a sample of a live flu virus. You might not want to touch me right now.”

  His arm fell to his side and that fake smile schlepped off his face. “Um, okay, thanks. Sorry to interrupt your work, but Ms. Rosenthorn would like to meet with Ms. Kline. Do you mind if I steal her away for a few minutes?”

  “No, of course not.” Igor cleared his throat, an unnecessary act for any vampire. “Geri, we’ll pick up this discussion later, okay? In the meantime, I’ll look through my files and see if I can find anything.”

  “HAVE A SEAT, MS. KLINE. Jess, can you please call Mr. Helsing and reconfirm my appointment with him?”

  Smooth as cream in a cup of coffee, her eyes flashed up just long enough to see if the name caused any changes in my expression. Any other day, it might have. I’d found even alone that a mere mention of Caleb could up my pulse and blush my cheeks. A purely physical reaction, of course. Base animal instinct. Today, she got nothing from me. I was too red from crying, and my pulse already accelerated by caffeine, for any noticeable change. I hadn’t even spoken to Caleb since I got back, other than a text to tell him I wouldn’t be making it to our normal training session, no explanation given.

  “You wanted to see me?” I asked after several moments when she said nothing more.

  Inga pulled a sticky note off her desk and held it to eye level. “I had a very interesting chat earlier this evening with the Red Matron.”

  I went rigid, my mind exploding into all the possible paths that could lead out from that comment. “Oh?”

  “It seems...” she lowered the note. “That you have been relinquished.”

  Any bitterness in my voice could poison the WWL well. I may be a de facto Huey, but I was still determined to unearth anything there was to inform me of what Cynthia and her ilk had been up to.

  “My mother disapproves of my choices,” I said flatly. Then, taking in the full breadth of what had just been said, I added, “She called you to talk about me? How did she even know I was working here?”

  A tease of a smile on Inga’s lips annoyed me. “Your mother is a very powerful woman, Gerwalta Kline, and like all women in power, she knows the value of a good informant. She has several in the city that have been keeping an eye on you since you moved here last year.”

  “Are you one of them?”

  “I am no one’s watchdog. But your mother and I... Well, let’s just say that our interests have occasionally overlapped.” Her eyes returned down. Good god, for a creature with supernatural speed, she could certainly stall with the tenacity of a sloth. “She asked me to fire you.”

  “She wants me to come crawling home with my tail between my legs, begging for forgiveness,” I said.

  “And will you?”

  “Never.”

  “Then, you can stay.” She waved a hand through the air, dismissing me. “But I’d suggest being careful around the v-staff. Under my orders, none of them have tried to sample you, despite great interest. I’m not sure you’ll hold much appeal in your current state, but the reasons for the ban disappeared with your powers. But there, I’m being presumptive, aren’t I? Perhaps you’d like to be tasted. In which case...”

  She looked up, flashing her fangs.

  “Not interested,” I said, rising from the chair. “And between you and me, we both know why I was banned.”

  For the first time in our interaction, something I said made Inga Rosenthorn flinch. “And why is that, Ms. Kline?”

  “For the same reason, my mother relinquished me. Because there’s something about me that’s different. Or at least, there was.”

  “But you don’t know what, do you?” The arrogance was back in her voice, and with it, my ire.

  “Does it matter anymore?”

  Inga grinned. “No, it doesn’t.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The rest of my night ran on auto-play. Under the auspices of being an intern in Igor’s lab, I marked up graphs of data and fed them back into a computer.

  In the past, routine work held no appeal for me. I detested treading water; I wanted to swim all the time, and usually against the stream. Now, my depression took comfort in the banality of rote processes. Open a tray, take a slid, scan it, mark it, repeat. Brainless work that didn’t demand reflection. The last thing I wanted to do was think about anything I did having an impact in any way on anything. If I was to be a being without purpose, I’d revel in my ineptitude.

  Halfway through my shift, I rose to use the bathroom, distracted. The second I turned around, I ran into someone who had managed to sneak up on me without my noticing.

  “Sorry, I didn’t... Oh, hi. What are you... Can I help you with something?”

  I couldn’t even pretend to be sorry I was no longer working with Doug Marsten, my supervisor while I’d been in the mailroom. He’d been a boss, nothing more, and a snippy one at that. He had always looked at me as an unnecessary addition to his well-running machine of a division. I’d thought he’d be happy to be rid of me, frankly. The way he glared at me, however, made me think I’d still managed to piss him off with my very existence.

  “Gerwalta Kline.” His mouth pulled tight into a toothless smile. “So I guess now you’re too good for the mailroom?”

  I wasn’t sure what he had been told about my transfer, but given WWL’s general on-a-need-to-know-basis attitude, I suspected little.

  “Turned out to be a clerical error,” I said, creating alibis on the fly. “I was supposed to be here in the lab from the beginning. Someone in HR messed up the paperwork. I’m a biology student at school, you know, so this is kind of a good fit for me here.”

  “I never wanted you in my division,” he muttered, his fist unusually tight. “But they put you there, so I changed around our procedures to make work for you. Work which now is going undone, since you unceremoniously left.”

  “If I had known there was a going-away ceremony, I’d have been there with bells on.”

  My humor died on the altar of sarcasm.

  I wasn’t sure why Doug would be hell bent on me staying under his supervision, given how much trouble I caused him, what with using my deliveries as excuses for wandering to areas where I had no business being. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the man was about to explode. The vein on the side of his neck pulsed, and though Doug might not be aware, the vampire who was now my supervisor had taken notice of his normally overlooked presence. No doubt the driving pulse beating in the middle age man’s chest sounded like a fast food jingle to Igor. He crossed the lab to our position, careful to move at a human pace to keep up appearances.

  Doug didn’t wear pink glasses; he wasn’t in the know about the true nature of his employer.

  “It’s Mr. Marsten, isn’t it?” The vampire extended a hand. “Doug Marsten?”

  I may have imagined Igor’s handshake being a little more firm that was likely needed. It could be a threat, or it could simply be that the vampire was out of practice with scaling actions for Huey consumption.

  “Yes, and you’re Igor Karmarov,” Doug said, dropping his hand as quickly as he could. “You’ve stolen my employee away.”

  Igor crossed his hands over his chest. “Technically, Geri is an intern, not a staffer. I’m sorry for the confusion the clerical error caused. She’s a wonderful young woman; I can understand why you miss having her in your division.”

  Doug took two measured steps back, glaring at Igor the whole time. “Oh, I won’t miss her. You can be sure, I won
’t miss her.”

  And with that, he turned on his heel and left the lab.

  I cocked my head to the side. “What the hell was that about?”

  “Not sure.” Igor shrugged. “He’s always seemed an annoying ass to me, but perfectly suited for his job. A strong proponent of doing things methodically and strictly according to protocol. I guess you made a bigger impression on him than you thought.”

  “I guess so.”

  As Igor went back to his workspace, something niggled at me. The vampire’s read on Dough match my own; my ex-supervisor did like procedure. He liked rules and regularity. I still remember how I’d gotten in trouble because of my desire for a regularly-scheduled rest break. He was the type of boss that wanted you clocked in and out with military precision.

  Which made me wonder why the man who clocked himself in precisely at 7 AM had visited me in Igor’s lab four hours before his shift began.

  AT FOUR AM, WHEN THE two other technicians, two women in their twenties with the rose-tinted glasses, took off at the end of the shift, Igor caught me in the lobby.

  “I can give you a ride home, if you don’t want to take the train.”

  “You mean you can give me a ride home, if I don’t feel safe,” I returned, calling him out on his kindness.

  Igor buried his hands in his pant pockets. “You think just because you’re a Huey now I see you as weak? You stood up to the red matron. Any woman who can do that can take care of herself just fine, and I don’t think superhuman strength or a predilection towards silversmithing played any part on that. You’re going to be okay. You’ll find your way in life, it just won’t be in the same way you thought.”

  My whole body sighed, weary and warped with woe. “Thanks, Igor, but I’m good. Actually, I think I might just hang out here for a while.”

  His eyebrow arched. “In the lobby?”

  I shrugged. “Morning shift will start coming in soon. I should watch them, so I can observe them in their natural habitat and adopt their odd, Huey ways.”

  I felt like a bird snatched from flight when the professor pulled me into his embrace and wrapped his arms around me. “There’s a chance, though I’m not sure completely about it,” he said into my ear, “that you might be able to cross into my world now. I would sire you if you wanted to, Geri. I’d be proud to call you daughter.”

  Someone on the outside of the supernatural world might find the offer an insult. I knew, however, that a vampire only offered to sire a Huey of great potential, though what my potential in his eyes might be, I didn’t know.

  “Thank you, but right now, I don’t see that happening.” Despite my sorrow, I found myself returning his hug.

  He pulled back, holding me at arm’s length. “Offer’s on the table, if you ever change your mind.”

  With Igor’s exit, it was just me, the night security guard, and a sole custodian, vacuuming in the corner, in the lobby. I should go home. Tobias was already thinking I was going to jump off the Sears Tower or something after how much I sulked around my hospital room. For the first time since he’d met me, he hated not being able to sense me, saying it was a comfort he’d didn’t realize he’d had. I was glad of it, though. I didn’t want him feeling the emotions that consumed me now. They would only drag him back down into the mire of his own loss. I wasn’t sad just because my birthright, which I swore for so long I didn’t want, had been forcefully ripped from me. It was guilt that ripped at my soul. I’d saved Tobias, kept him from going moon mad, more or less forced him to take to a new pack, so that I could alleviate myself of the burden I’d taken on when Kara died. Now, as a Huey, what hope was there for me to make good on that debt? How would I ever be able to navigate this world of wolves and vampires as an outsider? Now that I’d been turned away from my clan, what protections did I have? My mother had disowned me. A relinquished hood was scarcely better in this world than a lone wolf.

  I had failed him. I had failed myself. I had failed Kara, and Cody’s dad, and Tobias’s brother. I had failed every wolf that would fall prey to whatever it was that Cynthia’s ilk was up to.

  “Geri?”

  Caleb’s smooth tenor broke my reverie. I looked up to find him dressed in, of all things, a tux, with sleek lines and no tails. He’d loosened the collar and unbuttoned his shirt, his bowtie lopped around his neck like a dead butterfly. Behind him, a man I recognized as Thug 2 who stood outside Inga’s office during our first meeting waited, both intently focused on us, and disinterested.

  “Always sit in the lobby after your shift?”

  My eyes narrowed on him. “How do you know it’s after my shift?”

  His eyes tracked down, pulling my attention along for the ride, to find I was still wearing my cleanroom suit.

  “Oh, yeah. I was just really tired when my shift ended. Guess I forgot to change.”

  “Well, I have to say, of all the women I’ve seen wearing hazmat suits, you pull it off the best.” He held out a hand. “Come up with me. Have a drink before you take off.”

  “You are a terrible flirt, you know that.”

  “On the contrary, I’m rather good at it.”

  Thug 2 barked goodbye to us at the elevator, heading down as we headed up. For the first time, we weren’t alone in the hall when we stepped off on the secure floor. Caleb waved to a vampire with mocha skin I recognized from Accounting wearing an Armani suit as he keyed into his own unit. Inside he invited me to have a seat in the living room, a space the size of my whole apartment with modernist, black leather furniture that would make Amy flip and a view of the Chicago skyline that would make Amy throw off her clothes and beg to be savaged.

  Then again, a brick wall might have the same effect on her.

  He took of his jacket and threw it over an armchair before sitting down to wrestle off his leather shoes. “Hope you don’t mind me loosening the penguin suit a little. I hate dressing up.”

  “But you look so good like this.”

  The slayer actually blushed. “Are you coming on to me, hood?”

  The little twinge of playfulness I felt died. “I’m not.”

  Caleb coughed a chuckle. “No need to be so disgusted by the prospect. Shock you as it might, you wouldn’t be the first. Not even the first tonight.”

  “No, I didn’t mean that.” And before I could realize what I was doing, it came gushing out. “I mean, I’m not a hood. Not anymore. My mother relinquished my powers. I’m... I’m only human now.”

  Confusion mired his features. “What does that mean, she took away your powers? Is that even possible? I thought you were going home so you can go through your fire ceremony thing. You’re saying the opposite of that happened?”

  It felt like I had a ten-pound weight dangling from each ear as I nodded. When I looked up to catch the pity I knew Caleb must be wearing, I found myself instead looking at a man who had just found out his cancer was in remission.

  “Oh my god, Geri! That’s excellent news!”

  Credulity took the express elevator down and fled the building, putting as big a distance between me and it as possible. “What?”

  Caleb moved from the armchair and sat beside me on the couch, taking my hands in his. “Do you know what I’d give if I could stop being a slayer? Think about it: you can be anything, be anyone, you want to be. You’re not tied down to a legacy. Geri, you’re free.”

  “But I...”

  He stopped my word with two fingers pressed to my lips, freezing me in babbling fish mode. “This gives you a clean slate. You can write whatever story you want for yourself. Sometimes the only way to find our true path is to be driven from the wrong one.”

  I eyed him with the sharpened glare of a mad woman on the edge. “You got that from a fortune cookie, didn't you?”

  “That doesn’t mean it’s not true.” He let go of one hand and moved it to my forearm, squeezing. “Do you know how jealous I am?”

  In the last ten seconds, the focus had somehow shifted from me to him, kicking me in the ass and re
minding me that the whole world didn’t revolve around me getting the very fate I had spent years wishing for, and now suddenly, didn’t want.

  “How can you say you don’t want to be a slayer? You’re the last of your kind! The survival of your whole species depends on you!”

  It was like I’d shown him a mirror, and he didn’t find the image pleasing. Caleb pulled back, his face contorted.

  “I don’t mean I’m ashamed of it or anything. But in this world, in this place, it’s the worst possible thing to be.”

  I scooted to the edge of the couch, trying to get his eyes back on me. “Why? I thought you were safe here?”

  “I am, but at what cost?” He looked up at me. “Those who would exchange their freedom for security deserve neither.”

  He wasn’t going to get out of this can of worms he’d opened in a baggy sealed with a Benjamin Franklin quote. “What haven’t you told me?”

  He hesitated only a moment. Then, as he started his shoulders drooped. “I tell myself I’m a refugee. In some ways, that’s true. But would they let me leave if I wanted to? No, because Inga needs me. I’m the key to her whole scheme.”

  “What does she want you to do?” I asked. “Kill the Ravens? Could you even do that?”

  “Do you remember when I told you there was one vampire I faced and I barely escaped with my life?”

  I nodded. “You said it was one of the Ravens.”

  “An ex-Raven, actually. Inga left them after Dracula died.”

  If he thought I’d be surprised by the reveal, he was let down. I’d already known that Inga was the firstborn daughter of the infamous vampire. Adding that to what he’d told me before about the Ravens lined up perfectly.

  “Go one.”

  Caleb licked his lips. “I went a little crazy after my parents died. I didn’t see the difference between good vampires and bad ones. They were all bad ones in my eyes. Then I crossed Inga’s path. She let me dig into her for a while, before easily handling my ass to me on a plate. She told me she wasn’t going to kill me. Sometimes I wish she did. She had bigger plans. She brought me here, taught me how to fight, gave me money, clothes. Even women. I thought she was taking pity on an orphan kid, and I began to see vampires differently. Then a couple years ago, she told me we were ready to move to the next phase. Said she had some genetics wizard working on a DNA therapy that would make, and I quote, ‘a viable female.’”