Chapter 15
Matt
The Nissan passenger van that Deejay owns can seat up to ten people and for some reason, I drive while Deejay sits in the passenger seat navigating us to the Houston Zoo. Robbie chose to stay home, informing us that his anti-anxiety meds take a few days to work and can have some weird side-effects, and he doesn’t want to be in a public place if that happens. Other than him, everyone else chose to come. The littles sit in their car seats while Kendall reads, and Colt entertains them with a show on his tablet.
The parking lot is ridiculously full, but I find a spot designed for large passenger vehicles and park there. Deejay and I pack the twins into front sitting carriers that we strap on, then I grab the big hiking backpack he filled with our picnic and drinks and put it on my back. He gives me a crooked smile, patting my arm affectionately, sending a thrill of pleasure up my spine.
Stop being so pathetic, Matthew. The voice in my head sounds a lot like my old man’s, which clears the inappropriate zing right up. Nothing like my father to ruin a—well, everything, actually.
Kendall grabs the diaper bag and puts it over his shoulders, and then we’re ready. Deejay has a family pass, so we slide right through the ticket lines and get into the zoo.
It’s a wonder for me, since I’ve never been to a zoo before, but the way Cary goes on makes my excitement pale in comparison. For him, everything deserves a loud exclamation followed by commentary and making sure that everyone sees what he sees. The spring weather is perfect for a day out, so we take the long route through the outdoor exhibits. Cary is amazed by the giraffes and zebras, but it’s the elephants that entrance us both. You just really don’t have a sense of how big they are until you are looking at them in real life.
After the elephants, we take a snack break, doling out waters and granola bars, giving the littles a chance to sit for a bit since it’s a long walk for such young kids. Deejay mixes up a couple of bottles for the babies so they can also have a snack, then we apply a second round of sunscreen and continue the journey.
When we get to the chimpanzee enclosure, the babies find the ape’s shenanigans absolutely hilarious, giggling at the swinging and playing chimps. I glance over at Deejay, chuckling because baby laughter is amazing, at the same time he looks at me and we share a moment. The kind of moment that feels intimate and knowing. I haven’t known him for a month yet, but somehow, right now, we are on the same mental wavelength. His aura turns magenta around the edges as his entertainment at the babies softens to something else while we look at each other.
My own feelings turn less than kosher gazing into those seafoam green eyes, so I force myself to put it away by turning back to the chimps. I have seen magenta auras, but I haven’t quite nailed down what it means clearly. Lust is green—I see that every day; love has a variety of shades of red and purple, so magenta could fit into that category, but it can also denote a lie or secret, so I don’t know what magenta means for Deejay, but I am sure if he saw me the way I saw him, he would see some shade of pink and a whole lot of green every time he looks at me. And everything he does seems to have me digging the hole deeper.
Colt inserts himself between me and Deejay, glaring out at the chimps with a disgusted frown. “They throw their shit at each other,”
he grumps.
Deejay flicks his ear. “Language. I told you, when you’re an adult you can cuss however you want, but until then, keep it clean.”
Colt rubs his ear without looking at Deejay but capitulates. “Yes, Papa.”
“Two more years, for you, right?”
I ask him.
He shoots a steely glance up at me. “Until the non-human law recognizes me as an adult, yes, but I will still have to navigate the human truancy laws until I’m eighteen,”
he replies in a way that makes me think he is repeating something he heard Kendall say.
“Same,”
I grunt. “Although I made adult according to my people when I turned fourteen.”
Colt looks up at me with an angry-confused face. “Your people?”
“Obsidites. You heard of them?”
He shakes his head as Kendall clears his throat, catching our attention. “Rock monsters and magma dwellers. They take their name from the obsidian they use for most of their tools and building materials. I can see it. You’re as big as one and you have the right coloring for your hair and eyes.”
He peers at me for a moment before asking, “Do you see auras?”
I nod affirmatively. “That is why the topic came up. I didn’t realize that seeing auras was a non-human trait.”
“What’s mine look like?”
he asks curiously.
I frown at him. “What are you expecting to hear? Do you want the main color, do you want me to explain the chakras, or do you want me to talk about the meridians throughout?”
I ask, motioning over his body to indicate where I would see the answers to each of those options.
He cocks his head to the side, frowning thoughtfully. “I sense this is a conversation that can last a while. What is my overall color? We can talk about the rest later.”
“Your general coloring is a sparkle that every non-human I’ve met has. It gets bright, it dims, but you always sparkle and then you're usually orange. The rest I can look at, but I prefer to leave you to your privacy.”
He smiles, satisfied. “I don’t mind sacrificing privacy for knowledge. I want to talk about this at your earliest convenience.”
I shrug and nod. “If that’s what you want, but I’m not an expert, so I can only tell you what I’ve been taught and what I’ve figured out on my own.”
Maybe the Elder Council of the Obsidites will have a book on auras I can read, but I’ll check Deejay’s library first.
“That’s fine,”
he assures me.
Cary tugs at my hand. “Matt, I gotta poop!”
he informs me, wide-eyed and worried.
“Ok, let me check where the closest bathroom is,”
I say, pulling the park map out of my pocket.
“I know where it is,”
Kendall offers, pointing back the way we came. “Closest one is back at the snakes.”
I nod, putting the map away. I turn to Deejay who has Jasper by the hand. “Potty break sounds like a plan,”
he smiles.
I take that to mean we are all going, so we follow Kendall back to the snake exhibit to find the toilet.
As we sit at a picnic table under an umbrella next to the water pad, the hair on my arm stands up. I turn in my seat, searching for Jasper and Cary first, finding them splashing together in the water with Colt and Kendall both watching them. I scan the people around them, spotting a dreadfully familiar face smiling at me with black pearl teeth. I lurch to my feet, stalking over to my family, keeping an eye on the Chaos Eater. “Kendall, Colt! Get the boys over here!”
I yell at them over the din of the children playing.
All the children. There are so many of them.
Fuck.
The Chaos Eater sees the moment I realize how big his potential victim pool is. I pull Eren out of the carrier strapped to me and hand him to Colt. “Go sit with Deejay,”
I order them.
“What’s going on?”
Colt asks, putting the baby on his shoulder.
“Chaos Eater,”
I explain, tossing the baby carrier back toward our table, catching Deejay in the face as he followed me. “Sorry. Chaos Eater,”
I tell him, pointing at the man, who’s grin widens when he sees Deejay.
Deejay, hands Alex to Kendall. “Keep the littles safe,”
he instructs the older boys as he takes up a stance next to me.
“There’s a hundred kids here,”
I grit out, looking over the children.
Deejay grunts next to me. “We don’t hit first,”
he reminds me as his aura darkens with menace.
“But we sure fucking do hit last,”
I answer. “Can you handle him?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,”
Deejay growls.
The Chaos Eater chuckles inaudibly as a woman starts yelling with a note of panic in her voice. “Carroll! Carroll, where are you!”
“Keep your eye on the Chaos Eater,”
I direct Deejay as I start scanning the area for a lost child; this is exactly the kind of trouble a Chaos Eater would be drawn to or create.
“Got it,”
he agrees.
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the barest hint of a shadowy aura disappearing around the bend of an employee trail. “I got it,”
I announce as I make a run for that darkness.
It may be nothing, but I know what a shadowy aura means, and it’s nothing good. Wispy thin auras that look like shadow mean the person carrying them around has become completely corrupted. There are no boundaries they won’t cross.
I bang the gate guarding the trail open, pushing through as fast as I can. The fences around the narrow trail brush my shoulders as I run, but I started about thirty yards behind my quarry, so I ignore the hits when I run into the wooden fencing and keep going. I hit a courtyard with several offshoots just in time to hear a kid cry out a loud, “Mommy!”
I follow the sound down the trail to the left catching sight of my prey. It’s a Faerie carrying a non-human kid over his shoulder—obviously not the mom. He hasn’t noticed me yet, but the kid fights for all he’s worth, both slowing the Faerie down and increasing the chance he will see me before I can grab him. What I know about the Fae comes straight from the encyclopedia: they are vicious, brutal, and hard to catch. I would bet every penny in my pocket that this one established a portal to Sìthiche close enough that if I don’t get to him now, the boy could end up lost to the Fae forever. Once he crosses into their dimension, they own the child.
I press my legs for more, closing the distance between us. I get about arm’s length away when he finally notices me. It causes him to startle, giving me that last edge I need to grab the boy, pulling the Faerie off his feet. He falls backwards, landing with a thump that knocks the breath out of him. For the second it takes him to fish-mouth for air, I get one foot on his chest, pinning him there. I hold the boy up, looking at him. “Are you Carroll?” I ask.
He nods, tears streaking down his face. “I want my mommy,”
he whimpers, clinging to me in lieu of his mother.
“Lemme up!”
the Faerie demands, trying to dislodge my foot.
I pull out my phone and dial Kendall in case Deejay can’t answer the phone.
“Did you get the kid?”
Colt asks instead of Kendall.
“I did. Can Deejay come to me? I don’t know what to do with the Faerie.”
“Yeah, he’s coming. The Chaos Eater took off after you, so Deejay followed.”
“Fuck,”
I curse, looking behind me just that much too late.
“The Chaos Eater’s name is Tio,”
the man in question says about half a foot out of reach and far too close, smirking as he inhales like he’s smelling something delicious. “You certainly have the fine aroma of a delicious meal. What are the odds I’d run into you twice in one week?”
His chaos arms frantically move through the air, darting out, snatching up energy and pulling back, feeding him. And they keep getting closer to me and the kid.
“Matt!”
Deejay calls as he comes around the bend.
Tio glances at Deejay over his shoulder, following my gaze, then slips with the grace of a feline under my defensive block while I’m distracted, draping himself over my shoulders. “Maledict, please don’t curse me. I didn’t do anything wrong here. I happened to be at the zoo when this lovely Faerie decided to pop in for a snack. I had nothing to do with it.”
Tio affects innocence in his tenor voice, but no one here is buying that crock of shit. And now I’m surrounded by his chaos arms, they haven’t touched me yet, but this has the potential to become problematic.
“I am as bound by the law as you are,”
Deejay replies, pulling out his phone. “Please stay put, Loretta will want to chat with you.”
“If I must,”
Tio sighs, tightening his grip on my shoulders.
I let the kid go, needing to distance the kid from the chaos arms. I push him toward Deejay, bending a bit, rewarded by almost getting strangled by Tio who refuses to let me go. “Go to him,”
I order Carroll gently.
The boy runs straight to Deejay, who scoops him up, cradling him on his hip while he talks into the phone.
I straighten up, but Tio doesn’t give me any space. “Can you stay put about three feet away from me?”
I rumble. Now I am uncomfortable with the full body contact, especially the—please be a phone—hardness digging into my backside.
“Well, I don’t think that would be very child appropriate, do you?”
he murmurs in my ear, grinding his—it’s got to be a phone—into me further. He’s standing on his toes just to fuck with me like this.
“I think you’re full of shit, and I don’t like you clinging to me,”
I murmur back, tempted to push him off me. It’s ok to push if I’m gentle, right? That’s not hitting first.
“I’m hurt that you aren’t taking my boner seriously,” he pouts.
“Get off my—get off Matt,”
Deejay orders Tio, interrupting his own conversation to address the Chaos Eater.
“Get off his what?”
Tio questions softly, and I swear I feel his tongue dart out against my neck.
“It’s a complicated relationship. Just get off me,”
I growl, annoyed.
“Now I am extremely curious,”
he hums, but does back off, standing on the Faerie’s hip bones. That must hurt, way more than my leg on his chest. I’m not crushing the guy, just holding him in place. Tio has one foot on each hip.
“Twenty minutes,”
Deejay announces as he slides his phone back into his pocket, changes his mind, and pulls it back out again. “I’m going to tell the kids,”
he adds, holding the phone back up to his ear.
“Twenty minutes is an eternity to explore this complicated relationship,”
Tio claps.
“No,”
I say at the same time Deejay asks, “What relationship?”
“The relationship between this young Obsidite and you, Maledict,”
he replies, waving his hand between us.
“My late father’s ex-girlfriend is Deejay’s sister,”
I explain, capitulating because he’s likely to get more annoying if I let this drag out. I kind of expected him to be less flirtatious and more...well, vicious. He’s a Prime World Eater, but he’s not exactly acting like a threat. In fact, his aura looks a lot like Deejay’s. Generally happy, a decent person...I mean, there’s a lot of beige in there too, but to my eyes that’s more child-like than anything because I only ever see significant amounts of beige on children under six. I’m not sure what the defining characteristic beige represents yet, but I’ve never met an evil child, so...Tio worries me, but only because of what he is, not the content of his aura.
At least not at this moment. I know Deejay is a good man, full of joy and love, and right now his aura is black with menace and dark red with potential violence. So there’s that.
“So, there’s no relation there—what is your actual relationship status?”
Tio asks, bringing me back to the conversation.
“That’s all there is, Tio,” I insist.
He points to Deejay. “If ever there was a look of disappointment, that man is wearing one.”
I glance at Deejay, who doesn’t look at all disappointed—maybe a bit sunburned.
Deejay scowls at Tio. “I have already informed Loretta that if you step one foot out of line, I get first crack at you. How bad do you want the curse I am going to lay on you? Decay before death or after?”
Tio grins and chuckles. “Oh, I prefer the most elaborate curse you can create. Nothing but the absolute best for me,”
he purrs seductively, sliding his hand from my shoulder to my bicep and squeezing my arm hard enough to make me flex. “Oh my, oh my. You are certainly a strong one, aren’t you?”
I might have taken his flirtation a bit more seriously if he didn’t slide a glance at Deejay to gauge his reaction. “Dude, you are so far from my type, you’re not even in the same universe.”
His grin broadens. “Does your type happen to be paternal and a little pretty?”
he teases.
I blink at him, affecting nonchalance, then deliberately turn to Deejay. “If he accidentally loses his balance and hits his head on the pavement a few times, I can’t be held responsible, right?”
Deejay’s aura brightens with amusement. “Accidents happen,”
he shrugs with a laugh in his eyes. I guess he’s less concerned about the Chaos Eater too.
“If it gets a big, beefy man on top of me, I’ll fall on purpose,”
Tio croons suggestively.
I stare blankly at Deejay for a moment. “Is it illegal to curse someone with a harmless rash on their taint?”
I deadpan.
“Not specifically,”
he smirks, patting Carroll’s back. The kid has fallen so quiet that even though I’m looking at him, I keep forgetting he’s even there.
“Maybe you should take the kid back to his mother?”
I suggest, although I really don’t want to be left alone with Tio and the Faerie.
“I put him to sleep; he’s fine. Kendall let the mother know to stand at the entrance to the trail to wait for Loretta’s men to come grab the Faerie,”
he assures me.
I won’t complain about that. “Can you put the Faerie to sleep too?”
It’s getting uncomfortable fighting him.
Deejay stares at the Faerie thoughtfully. “If he doesn’t settle, I can put a fifteen-minute shock curse on him. He wouldn’t be able to move. It would be like getting tased for the next fifteen minutes. How’s that sound, Faerie?”
The Faerie goes limp immediately. “No need for curses, Maledict,”
he decides.
Deejay gives him a curt nod then turns his attention back to me. “Better?”
I tip my hand sideways back and forth. “On the one hand, he’s not trying to fight an unmovable object; on the other, twenty minutes in a stair-step pose without crushing him might be a challenge.”
“I’m fairly sure he’s destined for the Cage anyway, so a preemptive crushing might be a mercy. No one has to know he didn’t suffer the injuries struggling to escape.”
Deejay’s amusement increases again as his eyes dart to my leg and back up to my face.
“I saw that!”
Tio exclaims victoriously.
I look at him confused but think twice about asking. “I’m not sure I want to know what you’re talking about,”
I decide, turning away.
Tio laughs. “Your Maledict likes what he sees when he looks at you,”
he announces anyway, giving me an exaggerated once-over.
I snort my disbelief, glaring back at him. “You’re reaching, dude. I know what’s in the mirror and it ain’t pretty.”
His eyes squinch up in disgust. “You’re quite handsome for an Obsidite. I would say one of the best looking of the bunch. Ugly for a human, but you’re not human, are you? Don’t judge yourself by human standards; it’s unseemly,”
he pronounces, a bit snobbish.
“I hate to agree with a Chaos Eater, but he’s right. For an Obsidite, you’re quite handsome,”
Deejay agrees, giving me another once-over, this time for real.
I blush, genuinely unable to take a compliment about my looks and embarrassed by the attention from the guy I am growing to like more and more every day.