Chapter 8
MAX
This had been the week from hell. Not only did I have to suppress my shift because my swan wanted to come out with a vengeance, but I had to deal with so many emergencies at work.
Most nights, I got home with barely enough energy to fall into bed sometime after midnight, only to be back I was back at the office the next morning by seven.
It was a vicious cycle, which always happened the week before the party.
Thank the universe, it would all end tonight.
All of our hard work, everything we had planned, it all reached its crescendo tonight. People were coming from all over the world to see and be seen, and hopefully, donate to a worthy cause.
And for whatever reason, I felt more anxious than usual.
Maybe it was my talk with my father that had given me a sense of foreboding, as if a black cloud hung over my head, threatening to take me down.
It was more than that, though. The dreams I’d been having, the feeling someone watched every move I made… I felt buried, unable to breathe.
Tonight, I had to try to ignore everything swirling in my head because I had an event to host and a show to put on. With this bunch, feigning it was easy. Hell, most of them were faker than Hollywood. Then again, some flew in from Tinsel Town to attend the gala.
“Sir, we have people beginning to arrive, the press is being pushy, and everyone is waiting on you to make an appearance,” Mrs. Harris spoke through the phone.
Was it too late to cancel everything and just hide out in my tower? “I’m on my way. In fact, Fizz and I are in line now to get out.”
“You were supposed to be here an hour ago. You know as well as I do, once that line starts, it will take forever for you to get in here. The Adler Planetarium was a great location, but it also means limited access to bypass the traffic.”
I grimaced. “I know, but there was an…Fizz had a slight accident. The whole apartment filled with smoke, and the fire department was called.” She’d know it was a lie, and a simple check would prove it.
“Fizz? An accident and Fizz was the cause?” While she was questioning me as if I’d said the most unbelievable thing in the world, Fizz was glaring at me from his seat. “Now, you listen?—”
“Have to go, almost to the front of the line.” I hung up and slunk back, sinking into my seat.
Eve Harris had been with me since I began working at Swan International, Inc.
and probably knew me as well as my own mother, which also meant she would call me on my shit on a daily basis, but I couldn’t tonight.
We were late because I almost shifted. Something happened.
It was as if something called to my inner bird and entranced it, pulling it to the surface.
Typically, even when the pull came over me, I could ignore it and not shift.
Not tonight. Tonight, I stood from my bed, dressed only in my black tuxedo pants, and moved to my balcony.
I was fully aware of what I was doing, but I couldn’t control anything.
My swan came to the surface, screaming to get out and flee, the feeling stronger than any other time in my life with one exception.
When I was a little boy, a kid was in trouble after falling into a hole in a graveyard.
Looking into his eyes, something happened to me.
The swan inside me fought to escape, and a moment before I shifted in front of a stranger, I told him, “I’ll be right back.
” Shuffling away from the pit to where he could not see me, I shifted, turning into a brilliant white bird who loved to spread his wings and take to the air.
I’d just learned to fly, and it was glorious to feel the wind glaze over my wings.
It tickled a little, but at the same time, I was utterly free up there.
That happened when I still believed having an animal inside me was one of the best things in my life.
I’d been so na?ve. That day, I flew and got help, bringing my father with me to save the boy.
All was well, but there was something about him.
After we dropped the boy off at his house and began driving home, my father said, “Stay away from him.” I tried to tell him that I didn’t really know him, had only seen him around and knew of him, speaking to him once before that day.
We weren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination, and before seeing him in the hole, I’d never had that sort of reaction to him.
My father growled, “Stay away from him.” He didn’t explain further, and I didn’t ask.
Shortly after that, I never saw that little boy again, and the house was empty. I remembered flying over it one day, trying to figure out why that kid made me feel the way I did, why my father forbade me from having anything to do with him.
“You blamed it on me?” Fizz asked incredulously.
He’d been the one to come into my room and find me standing on my balcony, looking down over the city.
He’d been the one to pull me back inside, slap my face, and throw me in a cold shower trying to get me to respond to him.
I could see him, but couldn’t react. To him, I stared at him with a blank expression, and he said it reminded him of the phrase the lights were on, but nobody was home. I scared him. Hell, I scared me.
After taking a hot shower to rid me of the chills and so my lips would change back to red from purple, I pulled out my other tuxedo.
This one was a dark royal blue that appeared almost black.
In the end, we’d been over an hour late leaving, and the car had been waiting for us longer than anticipated, but as long as the driver was getting paid, he didn’t care.
“It’s plausible,” I finally said.
“Yeah, and so is you saying you will become an Olympic swimmer. Plausible, but unbelievable. She is going to give you so much shit when we get there.”
“Maybe not. There will be too many people around.”
“And you used me because?”
“It was the first thing I could think of.” I shrugged.
I was still weary and on edge from what happened earlier, plus everything else that happened this week.
Maybe it was my swan. I’d been fighting it all week, and it was tired of being neglected.
Flying, and I couldn’t believe I was admitting this, would probably help clear my head and let me find center again.
That had to have been what happened tonight, because if it wasn’t, I didn’t know what else it could be, and that terrified me.
I couldn’t lose control. Losing control meant that people could find out my secret, and unless they were the trusted few, no one would ever know I transformed into a swan.
“What happened tonight?” I’d lost count of how many times he questioned me after he found me about to leap.
I hadn’t shifted, and if I was going to, I could have done it in a split second, and he would have never caught me.
Was I going to jump without shifting? No, my swan wouldn’t have allowed it.
There were times when I was a teen and a bit of a daredevil when I would jump off the roof in human form and shift during the fall, barely missing the ground.
My antics made my mother screech and my father turn so many colors, I accused him of swallowing a rainbow, which got me into more trouble.
I told him what I’d been telling him since I came back to my senses in the freezing cold shower, my pants soaking wet and my body shivering, “I don’t know.
” To anyone else, I would have blown it off as nothing, but I couldn’t with Fizz.
First, he knew me too well, and second, I was afraid.
He lived in the apartment with me, keeping me safe, and he had to be aware of how fucked up tonight was for me.
“Maybe it would be best if, after the gala, you snuck up to the roof and flew home. If anyone sees you flying off, they’ll just think a bird landed on the room.”
Shaking my head, I grunted in disagreement. “I can’t take the chance.”
“The planetarium roof is surrounded by a short wall so no one falls off. There aren’t any buildings close to us, and there is water at the rear.”
“Too many eyes around here. I can’t take the chance,” I rejected his argument. I was careful, maybe a little too careful, but I refused to allow my secret to be discovered by anyone.
He groaned in frustration and crossed his arms over his chest. I was annoying him. “Fine, but when you get home, you need to shift.”
“I will. The swan is demanding freedom, and I don’t think I can fight him off any longer.”
His gaze studied me for a moment, causing me to squirm in my seat a little. “You, more times than not, talk about your swan side as if it’s a separate entity. You do realize it’s a part of you, right? It’s as much a part of you as your eyes and your heart.”
I didn’t answer him, didn’t acknowledge his words. I didn’t want to. The swan, the animal side I’d been cursed with, was separate. We had learned to co-exist in the same body, and that was all.
Thankfully, Fizz shut up after that, and when it was our turn to get out of the car, he exited first while I waited for his signal.
Slipping on my sunglasses, I stepped out and was immediately greeted by the multiple flashes from cameras and people yelling at me to turn their way. The lights were blinding even with the shaded lenses I wore, and the sounds, deafening.
I would move a few steps, pause, and pose.
Move a few more, pause and pose. This went on until I was almost to the door, and only then, did I stop to talk to the press, delivering my prepped statement, “Tonight is going to be bigger than any of our previous events, and The Adler Planetarium is the perfect backdrop to a wonderful evening. As you know, we are raising money for The Sky’s The Limit, an amazing charity, which helps fund literacy and education programs for people of all ages.
If someone knows how to read and understands what they are reading, nothing can hold them back. ”
“Mr. Lux, where is your date?” a reporter demanded, and I clenched my teeth. I never brought a date to these things, so why did they keep asking?
Instead of answering, I ignored him.
“Mr. Lux, over here!” I turned slightly and smiled, not looking at anyone in particular.
I could tell the general area that demand came from, but not who said it.
“What do you think about the rumors the charity is siphoning funds to line the pockets of the board members instead of going to the projects your grandfather instituted?”
I’d heard these rumors a year ago and investigated them.
One board member had somehow convinced the trust which managed the money at the time to give her some of the interest, believing I would never find out about it.
Both parties were dealt with swiftly, and the funds were moved to another company.
Everything was done in secret because I did not want anyone to question our use of the funds.
The authorities were notified, a report went out to the necessary individuals.
“I would say that if someone tried to do something as stupid as that, they would pay the price. The money is not for personal gain.”
“So, is it true?” several reporters asked.
“There was an issue, and due to that, we have tightened security. This money was raised and is only allocated to programs The Sky’s The Limit supports.
Nothing else.” This could end up being a never-ending cycle with them.
Once they dug in their claws, they would peck until someone stopped them, or I left.
“Thank you for coming tonight!” I stepped toward the door, and entered the planetarium, relieved to be away from the noise and lights. Every year, it got worse.
My ears were still ringing when Mrs. Harris approached. “You’re late.”
Grinning, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.
She was shorter than I was by a foot with long, light brown hair that had been pulled back into a low bun on the back of her head.
Fifteen years older than me, she was married and had two kids in middle school, twins, and still managed to organize my life.
She swatted my arm away. “Save it for the guests. You don’t fool me.
Neither one of you smells like smoke, and no alarm alerted at your apartment.
” Leaning forward, she sniffed me and then Fizz.
“You smell like Curve for Men, and he smells like Old Spice. Really, Fizz, there are better scents you can use.”
“But I like this one,” he smirked. Fizz had other colognes and aftershaves he wore, but in a big crowd like this, it was always his go-to.
He said he wore the Old Spice to stop people from hitting on him.
It never worked. Personally, I think he wore it for other reasons, not sure what they could be, though.
“You can save that for the guests, too,” Mrs. Harris snapped, wagging her finger to scold him. They’d known each other since college, and he was the one who suggested she would make a great assistant for me. He’d been right.
Shaking his head, Fizz stepped behind me. “Not my monkey, not my circus. I’m here to make sure our little prince is safe, and nothing happens to anyone else by managing my team. That’s all.”
“Gee, thanks,” I groused and rolled my eyes. I hated to be called prince because it did nothing except remind me of that damn story, the damn curse, my damn lot in life.
“You’re welcome.” Fizz dropped his large hand onto my shoulder, giving it a small squeeze.
Mrs. Harris lifted her tablet and tapped the screen.
“Guests are still arriving. We’ve had a few people we had to turn away because they claimed they bought tickets, but they weren’t on the list, and the printed tickets they showed were fake and very poorly done.
You would think people would wise up and get better at it.
Your parents messaged me. Your mother had a wardrobe malfunction, but they are on their way. They should be here shortly.”
“So, why are you getting onto me when they are late too?” I demanded harshly, earning a glare from her.
“They may be associated with the organization, but you are the organizer and in charge. You were expected to be here early to deal with any last-minute issues and details,” she stated calmly, tapping on her screen again.
“Were there any issues?”
She didn’t look up. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“See? You took care of everything.” I beamed and almost withered when her head popped up, and her scathing stare practically burned me.
Clearing my throat, I said contritely, “Thank you for everything, Mrs. Harris. I really do appreciate all of your hard work. Thank you also for being here when I could not.”
I saw her roll her eyes and sigh, and I wondered whether she was questioning her sanity in continuing to work with me, weighing the pros and cons. “Mingle, be polite, smile, and do everything you’re supposed to do.”
Saluting her, I winked. “Yes, ma’am.”
As she walked away, no doubt to check on something else, I heard her mumble, “Smartass.”