Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Bastian had been staying over more and more often, and part of Nick was hoping that someday they would be able to make it permanent.
He saw how Parker was with him. Parker was gentle, kind. Nick still remembered the terrifying feeling during the final battle with Sun, when he’d known that Bastian’s light had gone out, that he was dead. Being able to see him let Nick breathe a little easier.
Also, he could see Parker getting attached, Parker loving Bastian like he loved Laurel and Sugar. Whenever Parker had to step up, be a parent, it was like watching Parker be allowed to fix part of his childhood, as though Parker got to go back in time and make his own life better.
Nick squinted at the plant, then looked up at Bastian. Neither Parker nor Bastian would ever let a plant suffer like the one in Bastian’s hands was. It was dried out, desiccated, its leaves thinner than paper.
“What happened?” he asked in confusion.
“I maybe, kind of, stole a plant.” Bastian ended on a mutter, his voice going to practically nothing.
“You maybe, kind of, stole a plant.” Parker’s sentence sounded like it should have a question mark at the end, but his voice was flat. “From where?”
Nick knew Parker couldn’t actually be mad about the stealing of plants. He found Parker all the time with plants, rocks, sometimes even odd liquids in unlabeled jars. He knew Parker hadn’t purchased any of those.
No, it was something else that Parker was pinging to. He stepped back, yielding the conversation to Parker.
“It was at Wendy’s house. I think he belongs to her mom. But her mom is never home, and the maid doesn’t pay any attention to it. So it was just dying. I mean, it is dead.” Bastian stuttered to a stop, staring down at the small plant in his hands.
He was more upset than Nick had seen him recently, his mouth opening and closing before he finally shook his head. “I know it’s dead. But… it hurts. Can we save it?”
Parker blinked, tilting his head. He exhaled a long breath, and then his eyes crinkled. “If you save it, then you’re taking on the responsibility. It can be a burden. Do you understand?”
Nick wasn’t sure what Parker was talking about. He often saw Parker with handfuls of dead leaves, fine powders that had once been rocks.
But Bastian seemed to know exactly what Parker meant, his face going firm. “I get it. I’ll be taking responsibility for it.”
“Yes.” Parker nodded. “You’ll be taking responsibility for it, and it will be yours. But that means you also belong to it.”
Nick wondered if that was how Parker thought of his bag of plants and rocks, the unlabeled jars filled with powders and liquids.
Part of Nick had always assumed Parker thought of them like tools.
No matter how much he talked to them, no matter how affectionate he sounded, he always used them as needed.
But right now, Parker was practically saying, If you bring it home, you’re going to have to walk it every day and pick up all of its poop.
Or… No. Nick wasn’t entirely sure what Parker was saying, but something in Bastian’s face tightened. He nodded.
“Okay. Sit over here with me.” Parker crouched down on the floor, getting into an awkward cross-legged position. He and Bastian both stared at the plant, speaking in low voices.
Nick didn’t quite tune them out, but he turned back to the map he and Parker had been looking at. It felt like he was missing something, but he couldn’t quite figure out what. There was something so familiar about the shape, about the case, about everything.
Why alchemy? Or, if Parker was right and it wasn’t alchemy at all, why did it look like alchemy?
“It feels dead,” Bastian said hopelessly.
“No it doesn’t,” Parker corrected. “You can feel the part of it that called to you. The part of it that changed your mind, made you want to bring it home. That part is still alive.”
Nick froze, his mind doing some quick calculations. Parker thought the parasite preferred to jump right before it died. If it didn’t have a host for too long, it would die. Meaning, potentially, if they convince the alchemy parasite that its victim was dead, it would jump toward a new host.
He shook his head, trying to make it make sense.
If they could find a new victim, clear the room, make sure no one else was nearby, then they might be able to convince it to try and jump onto Parker or Nick. But if Parker and Nick had defenses up, the alchemy would effectively be neutralized.
But only if it thought its host was dead or moments before death.
“And there you go.” The grin in Parker’s voice was unmistakable, and Nick turned to see him staring at Bastian, his eyes crinkled, the joy on his face clear. “Just remember…”
“With great power comes great responsibility?” Bastian said, his expression amused.
“That it’s a lot easier to take care of something. Reviving it from the dead is harder.” Parker leaned forward, brushing a finger over the now vibrantly green leaves. “Indifference is easy. Kindness can be hard.”
Bastian looked down, something dark crossing his expression, mirroring Parker’s own. “I understand.”
He stood, picking up the plant. “Sorry for interrupting.”
He was looking down again, his expression closed and embarrassed.
“Bastian, you’re never interrupting. We like having you here.” Nick tried to say it firmly and calmly, tried to make Bastian believe it, but he knew it was hard because Bastian blushed and practically ran out of the room.
“I’m sorry. I keep saying the wrong thing with him.” Nick didn’t like the uncomfortable tightening in his stomach.
If Parker saw Bastian as his second chance, as an opportunity to change the outcome of someone else’s life, Nick realized he sometimes felt the same way.
Sometimes, he could see a possible future where Bastian had never been rescued from abusive parents. He knew he was leaning too hard on the scale, trying to make up for too much too quickly.
Parker shook his head, hiding laughter keeping his lips closed for a moment before he said, “You don’t say the wrong thing. But remember how hard it was for me to hear things like that when we first got together.”
“Are you implying that you were hard to court, Parker Ferro?” Nick teased. “No. I never would have believed that the man who rescheduled our third date five times was hard to convince he was worth spending time with.”
“Laugh all you want. When you tell him things like that, it makes a difference.” Parker’s smile was sweet, as though he was looking at the father Nick wanted to be, the father whose only expectation of his son was that he grow up safe and happy.
“I had an idea,” Nick said.
Parker stared at him, and then his mouth twisted. “Is this how you feel every single time I say that? Because I am getting a deeply unsettled feeling.”
“I think we have to kill the victims to save them.” Nick wished there was a better way to phrase it, but he couldn’t think of it.
“Now I am deeply unsettled. That’s something I would say. That’s something I would think. We didn’t do a body swap or anything, did we? Both of us would have noticed before now if my hair suddenly went as red as Jamie Lee Curtis’.”
“No one has turned into Lindsay Lohan.” Nick smirked when Parker gave him an exaggeratedly shocked look. “Yes, I have seen it.”
“So we need to kill someone. I assume I shouldn’t have Sugar find the shovel.” Parker’s expression was grim.
“We convince the parasite that the host is dead, so it tries to jump. When it does—”
“We’re ready for it. We give it the full knife suit treatment.” Parker was already nodding, his eyes going slightly unfocused as he considered ways to keep them both safe. “Yes. That makes sense.”
That was another reason Nick loved Parker. He was so fast. They could bounce ideas off each other and come up with a good solution. Or, not a good solution, but a solution.
“I need to practice it.” Nick swallowed. “The last time I did it, the fire was eating you alive.”
“And I truly doubt our victims are going to lie down helpfully and let you try to kill them.” Parker looked troubled. “You said that spell was complicated and draining.”
“It’s also deeply unethical,” Nick said unhappily. “What if I do it wrong? What if I actually killed them and I’m not able to bring them back?”
“So we don’t do that specific alchemy. Is there a different one we could do?” Parker looked at him searchingly. “Is there an alchemy circle that would just hide someone’s life signs? Hide their heartbeat?”
Nick started to shake his head but then paused. There had to be. He knew in special ops, combat alchemists were able to hide their team from both magical and physical life sign detectors.
“Maybe,” Nick said hesitantly.
“Maybe like maybe yes, or like maybe my husband is asking for the moon and only willing to pay in Monopoly money?” Parker raised his eyebrows.
“Yes, it’s possible. But the bigger question is would it work internally?
There’s combat alchemy that can hide you from heat sensors, even heart monitors.
But would that work against something already inside you?
Something that can feel your blood still pumping?
” Nick raised his eyebrows. “Also, I don’t know the exact alchemy. ”
Parker’s eyes widened. “Nick. We’ve met some combat alchemists.”
Nick nodded. After they had met Derek McCallum’s hired alchemists, Nick had asked his father about them. It had been relatively easy to track them down, and he kept his eye on them because he didn’t like having alchemists with that much power in his city.
Part of Parker’s possessive nature regarding San Amaro was bleeding over into him.
“I’ll contact them.” He made a face. “Let’s hope they answer.”