by Karen L Mead
Serenus downed the bourbon in one shot, trying to keep his composure. He leaned against his refrigerator, suddenly feeling every inch his age.
“I’m flattered that you’re using the considerable resources it takes to get here from Realm to visit me, but it’s really unnecessary,” he said. “I have nothing new to report.”
Azazel didn’t look up from his writing.
“Well, of course not. You’re keeping yourself so busy with your pointless university work, you have no time for your so-called friends.” The demon looked up and fixed his ice-blue eyes on the professor. “Or did you think I hadn’t noticed?”
Serenus breathed in slowly, thinking about how to respond. It wasn’t that he had truly expected to fool the demon at any point, merely that he hadn’t had a choice. Avoiding Sam and the entourage was the only thing he could do for them, to try to keep them out of whatever Azazel was planning.
“I really have been quite busy,” Serenus said. “One colleague is out on maternity leave, another is dealing with an aging mother. I’m doing their all their work, in addition to my own. I don’t have the time I used to have to hang out at coffee shops all day.”
“Mmm-hmm,” said Azazel, putting down his pen and steepling his fingers. “And did that just happen on its own, or did you write to your department head, asking him if he had any work, any work at all, that you could take on this semester? All so you could complain how conveniently, excessively busy you are, without lying?”
Any answer Serenus gave to that would have been a transparent lie, so he said nothing. The demon stood up from the table, not taking his eyes off of Serenus.
“It’s a shame,” he said. “I thought we might get on well, yet you disrespect me so. It’s as if you don’t know what I can do to you.”
“I do know,” said Serenus, managing to stay calm, somehow. “But the fact remains, I’ve told you all about the only thing of note that has happened with the entourage, the acquisition of the animal familiar. Which is quite fascinating, admittedly. Other than that, it’s been business as usual.”
“As far as you know,” said Azazel, taking a step closer to him. Serenus was already leaning against the refrigerator, so it was impossible for him to back up, though he instinctively wanted to. “Of course, you could have missed something. What, with you being so dreadfully busy and all.”
He closed the distance between them so he was inches away from Serenus, and the smell of coffee predominated. There was something unnerving about that, smelling his own preferred brew of Ethiopian coffee on the demon’s breath; in a way, it would have been better if he’d smelled of fire and brimstone.
“You need to get your priorities in order,” said Azazel. His voice was even, but the threat in his words was readily apparent. “You are an all-but forgotten grandson of Caesthil, who doesn’t care a whit about you. You’re not like Arrigio, or the Son of Sammael, who remain shielded by their fathers’ reputation. Either you start doing as you’re told, or I’ll have to make an example of you.”
Even though he’d been dreading this moment, Serenus found he wasn’t afraid; at least, not as afraid as he should have been. He’d already started to accept the fact that his life was ending. “Do what you want, it doesn’t matter. I don’t betray my friends.”
Azazel smiled, but the mask was starting to slip. Nerves were twitching at the edges of his handsome face. “My good professor, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Because if you had really said that to me, well, I’d have no choice but to rip your heart out of your chest right here.”
He put a hand to Serenus chest, and for a moment, the professor couldn’t breathe. When he removed his hand, Serenus breathed in lungfuls of air, greedily. He tried to slide down to the floor, but the demon had him pinned by the shoulder.
“But no, I’d prefer to handle this differently. You’re a teacher, correct? Well, then let me provide you with some education. On the nature of, oh let’s call it…persuasion. And all the delicious little parts of the human body, and what wonderful shapes we can make with them.”
Chapter 23
Cassie was disoriented when she woke up. At first, she thought it was because she wasn’t used to the new house yet, then realized she was in the wrong house altogether. She was on a different couch, in a different living room, and a whole bunch of kids were staring at her. Cassie buried her face in the cushions.
“I said no dreams! Can’t that guy do anything right!?”
A teenaged girl with long black braids and big, round glasses answered her. “Um, this isn’t a dream. This is a meeting.”
Cassie looked up. In addition to the black-haired girl, there was also a blond teenaged boy who looked close to manhood, a toddler boy sitting on the floor, a slightly chubby girl with a brown bob haircut, a slender teen boy who looked like he’d just stepped out of a Goth club, and a small girl wearing a purple dress. The girl was Corianne, and she lit up when Cassie met her eyes.
“Hey, Mommy!” she yelled, and jumped into Cassie’s lap. Cassie suppressed a sigh and patted the excited child on the head.
“Hey, Cor, long time no see,” she said. She addressed the girl with the black braids, who seemed to be a leader of sorts. “So, how many of you stupid kids do I have in the future? I was just getting used to one.”
“Um,” said the girl, clearly nervous. “You don’t have us all at the same time. We’re from different timelines, see? A-and there’s more of us, a lot more, but we’re the only ones who could make it to the Nexus right now. Not everyone is strong enough to make it to the Nexus.”
“Pathetic,” said the goth boy quietly. The girl with the braids shot him a dirty look before looking back at Cassie.
“Anyway, I’m Grace, you know Cor already, the tall guy is Cole, the little boy is Luke, Stupid Face there is Devon, and that’s Rina. Rina’s my actual sister, we’re from the same timeline.”
“I’m sure Mother appreciates that fascinating little insight into your life,” said Devon, his tone dripping with derision.
Cassie looked at Devon and suppressed a shiver. He looked fifteen, maybe sixteen, but something about his face didn’t seem to match the rest of him. In fact, something about him just seemed wrong, period. Naturally, seeing your future children years before you could have possibly given birth to them was inherently wrong, but Devon was like a special kind of wrong all by himself.
Those bumps on his head…are those horns? Or is he wearing some kind of clips in his hair that make it stand up in front like that?
Little Luke seemed to wake up at the sound of his name and waddled over to her, his floppy blond hair nearly blocking his vision. “Mama? Pick up? Pick up, Mama?”
Cassie stared at the little boy; she imagined that this was exactly what Sam had looked like as a toddler. He was so cute, she was almost distracted from how creepy all of this was. Almost.
“Okay, so what’s the emergency?” said Cassie, gently putting Corianne down on the couch next to her. “I doubt you guys would have all pulled me into…wherever this is…if it wasn’t important.”
Grace opened her mouth, but Cole, the oldest, interjected before she could say anything. “We need to warn you about something really important. We wanted to warn you earlier, but this was the earliest we could pull you into the Nexus.”
“Yeah, if we tried to pull you in before you were a real witch, your brain would have gone all ‘poof,’” said Corianne, helpfully. She wiggled her fingers aggressively, demonstrating what would have happened to Cassie’s brain, presumably.
Slowly getting her bearings, Cassie realized that the living room was the same one she had visited a month or two ago when Corianne had pulled her into the future. But if she was following what was going on, this wasn’t any physical location at all, but something else entirely.
“What is the Nexus?” Cassie asked.
Grace shrugged. “It’s just a place where different times converge. You don’t need to understand what it is or how it works, but this was th
e only way we could talk to you. Dwelling on it is a waste of time.”
What a bossy girl. I bet Sam totally spoils her.
Cassie stretched and leaned back on the couch. “Before you go on, can I just ask you all something? Raise your hand if I’m still alive in your timeline.”
No one raised their hand; to be fair, it was possible that Luke hadn’t understood the question. He was trying, and failing, to pull himself up onto the couch.
Cassie groaned. “I knew it! Why am I always, always dead in the future?”
Rina, who had been quiet until now, stepped forward. “I don’t know, Mom…it feels weird calling you Mom, but I guess there’s nothing else to call you? Um, what I was gonna say was, if you listen to our warning, there’s a chance you might live longer. That’s what we’re hoping, anyway.”
The kids all exchanged glances, except for Devon, who kept his dark-lashed, red eyes fixed on Cassie’s face. Unlike the other kids, who wore slightly sad expressions, he was looking at her like a slice of birthday cake he very much wanted to eat. Cassie made a conscious effort not to look at him anymore.
“Okay, so what’s the warning? Lay it on me.”
“Don’t take the SATs,” said Grace, Cole, Rina, and Corianne in unison.
…………………..what?
“Excuse me?” Cassie responded, thunderstruck. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t that.
Grace began playing with one of her dark braids. “We can’t tell you exactly what’s going to happen, because it’s different in everyone’s timeline. There are probably thousands of things that could happen, but the point is, every time you go take the SATs, something really bad happens. So don’t go.”
Cassie was still processing this. “But how am I supposed to get into college?”
Grace rolled her eyes and groaned. “Mom, we’re talking about saving your life, priorities PLEASE!”
Okay, she definitely takes after her father, I’m never that snotty. Am I?
Luke finally succeeded in climbing up on the couch, then buried himself face-first in her lap. When he picked his face up again, he murmured, “Mama no take ‘Ts. Mama no ‘Ts.”
Cassie ran her hand through Luke’s hair; it felt just like when she’d touched Sam’s hair, only hours before.
Can I take this one home? Nah, it would probably cause a giant time paradox or something and the world would explode. Not like it matters much, the way things are going.
“Okay, I get it, it’s just…this is a lot to take in. I’ve kind of been preparing for this test for my whole life.”
“Priorities, Mom,” Grace repeated slowly.
“God, you’re annoying,” said Devon, glaring at her. Cassie silently agreed with him, then felt kind of bad about it.
“I’m the only one that seems to be taking this seriously!” Grace responded, her braids flying as she whipped her head around to address Devon.
“We shouldn’t keep her any longer. She knows now,” said Cole, his expression serious.
Rina marched up and looked up at him, her expression hurt. “We finally get to see her again, after all this time, and you’re trying to get rid of her! Not everyone’s an emotionless robot like you.”
“You think I want to? But you know it’s not good for non-time sensitives to be in the Nexus!”
“That’s just a theory, we don’t know that for sure.”
“Uh, guys?” said Cassie, rubbing her temples. “I’m starting to get a migraine, so maybe Cole here is right.”
“Please stay with us, Mommy?” said Corianne, resting her head against Cassie’s shoulder. “Please?”
“Ma stay,” said Luke, starting to cry. “Ma stay!”
“I have to go, sweetie-pie,” she said quietly, and kissed the little boy on the head. He began crying uncontrollably and started hitting her with his little fists; eventually, Cole came and picked him up, soothing the child with practiced grace.
“Listen, um…except for Corianne, who I know a little, I don’t know you guys,” she said, touching Corianne’s back gently. “But I’m sure I love you very much…or, I’m going to love you, someday. You know what I mean.”
Rina burst into tears. “Oh, Mom,” she said, wiping her face on the sleeve of her baggy sweatshirt.
“But please send me home…I have this feeling like if I stay much longer, I’m not going to be able to leave. Please.”
“We’ll send you home right now,” said Grace. A tear was running down her cheek, but she didn’t wipe it away or acknowledge it. “Everybody ready?”
When the others nodded, Grace turned back to Cassie and began to gesture with her fingers. “I love you, Mom,” she said softly.
The room faded away, and Cassie expected to see her brand-new living room fade in. Except the process was truncated, and she had the distinct feeling of being yanked elsewhere. When she could process what she was seeing again, she was sitting on a snowbank, surrounded only by snow and ice. The snow wet through her jeans, and she shivered. She stood up and hugged herself, trying to warm up.
“That’s better,” said Devon, materializing from the aether. “I apologize for my idiot brothers and sisters. Then again, maybe you should be apologizing to me for them.” He laughed, his red eyes glittering through the falling snow.
Cassie tried to think through the cold. This was incredibly bad: she’d only known Devon for about five minutes, but she would have bet money that he was a sociopath. Plus, while he obviously knew that she was technically his mother, he didn’t seem to think of her like a mother at all.
She needed to get out of here.
“Send me back,” she said, trying to sound more authoritative than she felt. “If I get frostbite from this place, I’m getting my tubes tied.”
“Blame Cor. She found this place, I’m just borrowing it,” he said. To her horror, he moved close to her and cupped her face with his hands. “Huh, your eyes really are this color. I always thought that one photo on the wall must have been enhanced.”
He stared at her for a long while, snow settling on his dark lashes. His red eyes were different from Sam’s, a different shade of red with more luminescence. Like glowing blood.
“I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t beautiful.”
As Cassie feverishly tried to think of what to do, what to say to get out of this, he moved his hand down her body and let it rest on her abdomen. “And inside you, a million tiny possibilities. Another me, just waiting to be born…”
She pushed him away as hard as she could. “First of all, you fail biology forever. Second of all, keep your hands off me.”
“Or what?” he asked, smirking.
“Or else I’ll tell your Grandma Helen how fresh you are,” she said in a mocking tone.
She didn’t even know where she’d gotten the idea to invoke Helen’s name, but it seemed to do the trick; Devon frowned.
“Whatever. I brought you here for a reason.”
“I’m all ears.” Cassie shivered and put her hands under her armpits for warmth. “At least until they freeze off.”
In the next moment, she was wearing earmuffs and a long wool cloak. She hadn’t seen Devon make any kind of gestures that indicated magic, which was odd, but she was too chilled to care. She pulled the woolen cloak around herself and felt relief as her core temperature rose.
Devon put his hands on his narrow hips, assessing her critically. “Did you notice what was missing from that little group?”
“A redheaded step-child?” asked Cassie.
He didn’t dignify that with a response. “There was no one there from a timeline where you didn’t go to the SATs, right? No one to say, ‘yes Mommy, life is so great if you don’t take the test, that’s for sure!’”
“Wait a minute,” said Cassie. She tried to put aside her fear of Devon for long enough to seriously think about what he was saying. “You mean, if I don’t take the SATs, that’s a timeline where I never have any kids?”
“M
ore than that. I’m saying, if you don’t sit for that test next Saturday, there is no future.”
She took a step back. Snow seeped through her pants again, but she barely felt it. “That can’t be true. That’s not possible.”
For once, his expression looked earnest. “It is, I’ve checked. I didn’t share this information with Grace and the Crybabies, because they can’t handle it. But I can see the timelines better than any of them, and I know it’s true. All potential lines where you skip the test, all of them fade out. Not immediately, but eventually. All of them.”
Cassie pulled her cloak tighter around herself, desperately trying to keep up. “But…they said something terrible would happen if I went.”
“Oh, and it will!” He snickered at that. “But it’s still better than the alternative, right?”
Feeling unsteady on her legs, she sat back down in the snow. To her surprise, he mirrored her, though his black jeans stayed perfectly dry.
“Why am I so important?” she asked finally, not sure if she was asking him or any Gods that might be listening. “The world shouldn’t depend on what I do. No one should be that important.”
“Well, you are my mother,” he said, as though the answer was only natural.
“And who the hell are you, exactly?” she said, glaring at him. “Besides my least-favorite kid?”
He grinned broadly at that; to her decided lack of surprise, his canine teeth appeared to be fangs. “Oh come on Mother, you’re not stupid. You must have some idea who I am, by now.”
No. It’s not possible.
“But you can’t be…it doesn’t make any sense….”
“Why, because of the timing? Haven’t you learned to look past that by now?”
“I won’t have you. If I do have you, I’ll strangle you in your crib,” she said, feeling an odd pain in her belly. “I’ll kill myself before I can give birth to you.”
“You’re so cute,” he said, standing up. “I’d love to keep you with me forever, but of course that’s the one thing I can’t do. Even I can’t have what I want.” He sighed. “The grandest irony of them all.”