Chapter Eight #2
“I’m a good girl, too,” the little one said, and Mads let his senses study her. She was canid, shifter, and some small part mage. She was a strange mixture that Mads couldn’t turn away from.
“I’m sure you are. Sheila?” Mads took a stab, and the girl nodded eagerly.
“I’m a seeing-eyes dog!” Her words came out a little stilted, as if she were fighting to make sense of her own mouth.
“Only when you’re wearing the vest, dear. Please don’t go announcing that to strangers. I get enough funny looks from mundanes as is,” the blind omega sitting off to the side said. “And hello again, Mads. I recognize that scent. Are you better, now?”
“Much. I apologize for—” Mads fidgeted when Warring held up a hand.
“You were as much a victim as all of us. I got out quickly. But practice telling people you’re my helper, okay, dear?” Warring gave Mads a put-upon grin as if the argument was an old one.
“But I am a dog! And I has seeing eyes.” Sheila stamped her foot and frowned; the little shift of a dress she wore, flitting about her knees.
“Yes, but you’re also a little girl as far as I can see, and a very pretty one at that!”
“Daddy Sailor made it for me!” She twirled around. “I was only a part wolf before, but now I’m wolf and doggie and mage!”
“I can tell. So, why are you telling me you’re a seeing-eye doggie and not a helper when your daddy made you a helper body? It’s a lot of hard work, and he did good.” Mads offered a sweet smile that made the girl frown and think.
“Okay. I’m Papa Warring’s helper!” She beamed and grabbed Vince’s arm before shifting in a flash of fur and cloth as her dress fluttered by. Vince did so, too, kicking off a pullup and shorts before chasing after her in a little orange kitten form.
If Baron had seen that, the boy would never have found home. And may have been done just as Midnite had been. Or worse.
“So, welcome to the Omega Club.” Midnite grinned as he settled one of the twins back to scoot around on the floor to play.
“I thought this was the familiar club.” Warring blinked in surprise, eyes not quite focused.
“Yeah, but Mads isn’t a familiar, is he?” Midnite sighed.
“I am a familiar… Supposedly.” Mads fiddled with his hands.
“But you… What’s your lesser form?” Leon glanced up, brow furrowed.
“I don’t know. I’ve never shifted. Baron altered me so I am supposedly one.” Mads frowned, but he didn’t say that Baron had altered them, too. Not that Mads knew, precisely, what had been done to them. “It requires a certain kind of joy to shift for the first time.”
“When I found my kitty, it was because Daddy Rex binded Papa. And I really liked kitties.” Vince beamed and Mads wondered if he already had the trait for it before Baron started.
“It wasn’t…” Leon pursed his lips. “I was sick, and I was watching my grandmother’s pet birds. She had friends visiting, and they weren’t very kind about my birthmark.”
“It’s okay, Uncle W—Leon. I think you’re still pretty.” Vince beamed.
Me, too! Sheila, in her canine form, bounced on her feet.
“Can you turn your glamor off? Please, Uncle Leon? I wanna do makeups on you again! Papa got me some new pwi—primer.” Vince ran off to a corner and gathered an enormous Kaboodle.
“Thanks, guys. But it’s very noticeable, and not many people see it that way.” Leon smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Baron had lamented the boy would have been a perfect familiar if not for his birthmark.
Midnite, too, he’d tossed aside at first because he was half-breed. As if it mattered. If he showed mage potential, he was a mage. They were genetically identical to humans, but they had magic.
And Warring? He spoke up with a chuckle.
“I was sick, too. They were playing nature documentaries, and I was learning about how skunks come in all these neat colors and how bad their vision is, like me. I used to sit with my face almost pressed up against the screen. My papa had the TV set with way higher contrast so I could see it better. I was happy, though. Not that happy.”
“I still need a mage to feed from for my magic.” Mads pulled his wand out, still wrapped up in a cloth. He unraveled it for the first time, watching as the stained, polished driftwood unfurled into his hand, rolling across his palm like butter.
It was a simple design; the handle carved to resemble a tree trunk, the bottom of which had an ornate hollowed-out design clutching a garnet crystal orb.
And in a natural node, a knot in the wood, a tiny hole with the peeking head of a small raccoon stuck out, curious masked eyes inlaid with black diamonds.
“Marquis just made this for me, and I regret that I can’t use it yet. ”
It tingled in his palm, and the more he stared at that little face, the more amused he grew. Fuzzy little thieves.
“Mads?” Midnite stood as he stared.
Sheila, sensing something was off, ran up to Mads and barked, the sharp sound startling him into fumbling the wand.
In slow motion, the world around him dimmed, color melting away like an old television, static inundating his vision.
As the wand fell, so did he, pulling down and away from it as he reached, the hand extending not matching what was in his head.
Instead of pale skin, dark flesh met his gaze, clawed fingers.
He blinked and stared at them as his clothes seemed to pool about his torso, shirt falling down his neck and body. Oh shit!
Mads snatched his hands down to cover his genitals and froze. Silvery-pale fur met his gaze. And no visible genitals… He tilted his head and glanced around.
“Sheila, no! This is Mads!” Sheila rushed up, fur standing on end as she barked fiercely. Mads, feeling a little brave, chattered back, trying to link his own sounds to his body.
Mads? Sheila stared as her little tail wagged once.
“This is Rex’s papa.” Midnite stumbled over and scooped Sheila into his arms with a twirl.
Rex’s papa is a ratcoon? Sheila pinned her ears back.
“Raccoon, not ratcoon.” Midnite gave her soothing strokes and gently let her down.
Mads stood very still, his entire body prickling with fear and anxiety as the pup scooted closer, sniffing.
Vince, excited about another shifter, ran from the corner of Mads’s vision and tackled him with a mew of excitement. Fuzzy grandpeep!
“Go limp, Mads. I’m picking you up.” Midnite strode over, leaned down, and scooped Mads into his arms, making the world spin. “Easy. If you stiffen up, it’ll make you dizzy.”
Mads did his best to relax, his skin prickling as the world around him swept by, features that seemed familiar in color all came off as foreign and strange in his new vision. “Marquis!”
The shout earned no response as Nite strode past a few doors on the main floor and entered around a corner by the parking garage. Through that door, Marquis glanced up from a table with Roan, Sailor, and Rex hashing out the events to come with Midnite’s family visiting.
“Midnite? What do you ha— Oh my spirits.” Marquis stared at Mads, a moment of horror and joy fluctuating over his face. “Mads?”
Relatively certain so. Mads pawed at his fuzzy belly. It was cuddly and strange, the skin loose and plush.
“By all that glows, it is you.” Marquis stuck his hands out and scooped him up, strong fingers sliding through dense fur.
Am I cute?
“Immeasurably so.” Marquis laughed and pulled Mads in for a firm hug. “I thought this would be you.”
You put it on my wand. You knew. I trusted you. Mads did his best to give Marquis a raccoony grin.
“Am I hurting you?” Marquis eased his grip.
No, I’m happy. Smiling, see?
“That’s a smile? I mean. Okay. Yes. I see it now. Perhaps we get you a mirror so you can become more acquainted with your body.” Marquis cleared his throat and turned to the rest of them. “Mads!”
“I thought he wasn’t a familiar,” Roan said, brow furrowed.
Sailor chimed in. “Baron was doing a whole lot of experiments. Was it something to do with Damien’s death?”
Mads nodded. He figured out how to make omegas have more potential to shift. I was an experiment that failed, but there were many other successes.
“Like?” Rex glanced over, and Mads fidgeted with his paws anxiously.
It’s speculation, of course. I’m going off the omegas that Baron was following and hearsay. But he was invested in Leon, Warring, and you, Midnite.
“It’s just Nite. Marquis is the only one that calls me by the damn collar name.” Midnite—no, Nite, sighed. “And yeah, doesn’t surprise me. Baron’s photos did seem familiar, but I can’t really remember…”
I don’t think any of you would remember. Leon’s grandmother is dead. Warring is blind, and you had no idea about mages. I don’t remember much that would be helpful, and I was there for eighty years. Mads huffed, and the gesture made a little squeak from his nose.
“That seems about right,” Sailor sighed. “We may never know everything for sure.”
A jarring ding interrupted their discussion, and Nite wheeled around, his expression unreadable. He pulled his phone from his pocket and checked it. “They’re nearby. I gave them an address for South Wayland Street, not North, so they’ll be here in five minutes.”
“Good thinking, Midnite.” Marquis cradled Mads in his arms, and Nite huffed as he slunk off, the way he moved so catlike.
Mads didn’t like the way the mood had dropped, and he felt responsible for it, somehow.