Chapter 15
Henry
The small coffee shop across from the D.C.
Superior Court was bustling with the morning rush of lawyers, clerks, and other courthouse staff grabbing their caffeine fix before heading to work.
I spotted Victoria, Trevor, and Brenda at a corner table, their heads bent close together in conversation.
They looked up, their faces a mix of concern and curiosity.
“Sorry I’m late,” I said, sliding into the empty chair. “I needed to see Nick off to work before I left.”
“We haven’t been here long,” Victoria said. “What’s going on that we needed to meet so early.”
I took a deep breath, and the smell of coffee filled my lungs. “Let me get something before we start.”
“That bad?” Brenda asked.
Her concern was genuine. She’d been working to guard Nick for three plus years. Next to Trevor, she was the closest to him. “Hard to say. Give me a minute. Anyone else need something?”
“Cappuccino with an extra shot,” Vicky said.
Figures she’d ask me to buy her something.
The line was short and I was back in just a few minutes. I bought several scones and croissants for the group and set them in the middle of our table. Vicky took a sip and nodded in my direction.
“Thank you. I needed this.”
Asking her why she didn’t get one before sitting down was pointless. She’d waited for me to buy it for her. I wasn’t sure how much Grant told them, so I caught them up to speed on the Frederick trip.
“That jerk,” Vicky said. “I’ve been searching for him for months and he calls you out of the blue.”
I knew she’d be upset given the task Michael gave her. Picking up my phone, I sent her Uriel’s number. “He probably won’t answer you, and it’s almost surely untraceable, but maybe it will help.”
“Your connection to Nick make’s sense,” Brenda said. “He seems so much more hopeful with you than anyone else.”
“Probably because we aren’t trying to keep them apart,” Grant said.
It was hard to read his tone. Was he pissed off Nick and I were HKarlin? Maybe, but not because he wanted to be boyfriends. “I don’t know, but it’s been helpful. Right now, Nick’s willing to give me some leeway on keeping secrets.”
“That’s just so like Uriel,” Vicky said. “Don’t tell him, but figure out how to deal with the fallout when he learns the truth. Why doesn’t he try being helpful instead.”
Vicky’s opinion of Uriel was shaped by her father.
Uriel nearly killed Michael right before he disappeared.
Dad told me it was the only time he’d seen fear on Michael’s face.
If Dad and Raphael hadn’t stepped in, Uriel might have finished the job.
“I think you’re letting what happened cloud your judgement. ”
I waited for the push back, but Vicky was not the hot head her father could be.
Her silence was permission to keep going.
“You’re missing the bigger picture. Uriel is watching us, or at least Nick.
He knew within hours we were in Frederick.
How? I mean, even if he had someone watching Nick, they’d need to be close enough to hear our conversation.
Only the four of us, Nick, my Dad and Michael knew about the trip. How did he know so fast?”
“That’s a good question,” Grant said. “Is he tapping our phones or did he bug our apartment?”
Both were possibilities. I turned to Vicky. “Can you get someone to check out both before Nick goes home?”
“I’m on it.” She had her phone out before she answered.
“There’s one more thing,” I said, drawing all attention back to me. “It felt like Uriel had more than a passing interest in Nick. He sounded scared for his safety.”
“Yeah,” Brenda said. “He’s the fourth freakin’ heir. Of course, he’s interested.”
Her answer was too easy, and not accurate. I looked at Grant, but he averted his eyes. His grandfather knew more, but I wasn’t going to put Trevor on the spot. Yet. “It was more than he wanted to protect the heir. He practically pleaded with me to trust him so Nick would be safe.”
“Uriel?” Vicky scoffed. “He doesn’t care about anyone now that Ariel is gone. You must’ve misunderstood him.”
I hadn’t, but I wasn’t going to convince her.
“Can we get back to Nick and his emerging powers?” Grant said. “Where did he get the power to break the glass and to heal so fast?”
Every interaction with Grant—Trevor—improved his standing in my eyes. It shouldn’t have surprised me the person Uriel chose would be so competent. “It felt like he instinctively pulled power from the electrical system. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Victoria raised her eyebrows. “That’s unprecedented. If he can draw power from external sources without direct contact, he’s going to be incredibly powerful. Like my Dad powerful.”
“He’s also going to be unbelievably dangerous if he’s not trained properly,” Brenda said.
“I know, but I can’t do anything about it until Uriel says it’s okay,” I said.
“That’s insane,” Trevor said running a hand through his hair. “How are we supposed to train him if we can’t tell him the truth?”
I couldn’t answer him. None of us could.
“Why?” Brenda asked. “Why is Uriel so adamant about keeping Nick in the dark? He has to see how dangerous this situation is becoming.”
“Did you send Dad a report on this new development?” Vicky asked.
I nodded, and she looked disappointed. She had more faith in her father than I did.
“Fine,” she said. “I’m going to try harder to find Uriel and get the answers we need.”
“Good luck with that,” Trevor muttered. “If Uriel doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be.”
Vicky glared at him. “You got this assignment from Uriel. Are you the one leaking information to him?”
Trevor’s jaw clenched, and I put a hand on Vicky’s arm before he said something he’d regret. “Trevor’s not the source. Uriel turned everything over to Michael, and Trevor reports to your dad now. Uriel’s been planning this for a long time. He’s got his own ways to find out things.”
An uncomfortable silence fell over the table, but Trevor nodded when we locked eyes.
I don’t know why I defended him. Vicky could be right, but I knew it wasn’t Trevor.
Uriel was too smart to risk Michael pulling Trevor from Nick’s life.
He wouldn’t compromise someone he valued so deeply to guard Nick.
“What do we do now?” Brenda asked.
Everyone looked to me, the team leader, for direction.
Uriel’s prohibition made it hard to do more than maintain the status quo.
Unfortunately, Nick wasn’t remaining static.
“We keep a close watch on him. If he manifests his powers in a dramatic or dangerous way, we intervene. Subtly if possible, but if not, we ensure his safety and worry about how to spin it once he’s safe. ”
“I suggest we keep him occupied and limit his stress,” Brenda said.
They looked at me and my cheeks got hot. “I’m more than happy to have him stay over, but he’s going to want to stay in his own room sometimes.”
“He’s right,” Trevor said. “But between you and me, we can watch him at nights. And you can help Brenda watch over him during the day.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Victoria said. “In the meantime, I’ll reach out to some of our more unconventional contacts. Maybe we can find some techniques that could help Nick without raising his suspicions.”
I wasn’t sure how you trained Nick how to use his powers without letting him know what he was controlling, but I didn’t have a better suggestion. “Good idea.”
Vicky offered Brenda a ride back to her office, leaving just Trevor and me.
“I have to get to work,” Trevor said. “But thank you for the vote of confidence. Just because I love Nick, doesn’t mean I’m not secretly reporting to Uriel.”
Nick would never accept a world that Trevor wasn’t part of, I needed to be sure he and I were at least friendly. “But you’re not. If Uriel wanted to be in control, he wouldn’t have told Michael. You’re the first person people will suspect, which gives his real mole a bit more cover.”
“Uriel set me up to take the fall.”
Pointing to the remaining pastries, “Take those and give them away at work.” I stood and grabbed my coffee. “C’mon, I’ll walk with you.”
We gathered our things, and I mulled our conversation. It wasn’t like Uriel to use people like Trevor suggested. “I don’t think Uriel set you up. A simple truth test would prove your innocence. Only a lazy investigator would focus on you first.”
“Are you calling Vicky lazy?”
I laughed because whether I meant it or not, I had.
“She’s not, but she’s biased. Uriel and Michael were never close before their falling out.
He always worried Michael would do exactly what he did; convince Ariel to have a child even though it would kill her.
Only she and the baby died. Uriel blames Michael for killing her for nothing. ”
“Then Nick is Ariel’s son?”
If only it were that easy. “That’s what everyone thought, but Raphael supervised a blood drive at Nick’s office, tested his blood, and confirmed the Fentons are his parents. Don’t ask me to explain it, none of us can.”
Crossing the street in silence, Trevor stopped before we reached the building.
“Thank you,” he said holding out his hand.
“For believing in me and for making Nick happy. I don’t care whether he’s Ariel’s son, born of humans, or fell from the sky.
He’s my brother and I’ll do anything to keep him safe. I know you will too.”
I shook his hand, pleased we could do more than just get along. He’d nailed it when he said they were brothers. “Thank you for being open minded enough to accept me in your lives. It means a lot to Nick and to me.”
“I’ll watch him when he’s home,” Trevor said. “But I suspect he’ll spend more time at your place now.”
Taking a deep breath, I considered the unspoken question. “From now on, the three of us should try to do more things together. Meet for dinner, take day trips on the weekend, have a party. The more of us around him, the safer he’ll be.”
“Now I’m your third wheel?” Trevor laughed, but there was a grain of truth to his remark. “You should ask Brenda’s brother Zeke to help. He and Orion are a couple and Nick met them at one of the Masterson’s parties at Zeke’s house. He likes them and you don’t get much better than Orion in a fight.”
It was a good idea. Orion was a legend, and I wasn’t too proud to ask for help. “I’ll suggest Brenda throw a party at Zeke’s and invite us. We need to meet before we suggest double dating.”
“The last party was a hoot,” Trevor said with a smile. “Let’s do it.”
Zeke and Orion were my backups for the mission, so I was sure we could work it out. “I’ll get on it today.”
“This is going to be so much fun,” Brenda said. “I can’t wait to tell Zeke you want him to let me have a party at his house.”
“That’s not—” Brenda hung up before I could clarify that I wasn’t telling Zeke what to do.
My mistake was not warning Zeke before I called Brenda. Hopefully he knew me well enough to call before accepting his sister’s word for things.
I’d started walking to my office rather than take a ride share because I didn’t want the driver to hear my conversation with Brenda. I was halfway there already, so I decided to keep going and make another call. This one I wasn’t quite as eager to make.
The phone rang and I wondered if he was busy. I didn’t think he was out of the country. On the third ring, he answered.
“Henry.” Dad sounded glad to hear from me. “I hear congratulations are in order.”
His greeting was a subtle reminder he found out Nick was my HKarlin from Michael. “Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t call you and Mom. It doesn’t feel like we’re a true couple yet, so I wasn’t thinking I needed to tell everyone.”
“Fortunately, Uriel sent me an email explaining everything.” Dad didn’t seem mad. “It took a bit of the starch out of Michael when he told me thinking I didn’t know.”
Another example of Uriel not being the asshole everyone made him out to be. “Still, I should’ve said something. I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing,” he said. “This is a difficult mission. Between being in the middle of Michael and Uriel’s fight, finding out Nick’s your soul mate, and nearly losing him because you can’t tell him things, that’s a lot to deal with. You know we just want you to be happy.”
Yet another time I was glad I had him for my father and not Michael.
“I don’t know what to do, Dad. I can’t tell him what’s happening, I can’t tell him I can help him deal with what I can’t tell him is happening, and I’m scared he’s going to hurt himself or worse use powers he can’t control because we can’t teach him to use them properly. ”
“Don’t take this as a personal failure, son,” Dad said gently.
“Nick’s the first angel born to human parents.
It’s unprecedented. There’s no training manual to follow.
Michael, Raphael and I are working with others to figure out how we can help Nick control his powers, yet not tell him who and what he is. ”
I felt a little better knowing I wasn’t alone, but as Nick’s HKarlin, I couldn’t let go of my fear. “Thanks, Dad. I appreciate that.”
“Of course.” I heard him typing in the background. “The best piece of advice I can give you right now, is keep him calm and happy. Do whatever you can to minimize his stress.”
Dad didn’t say anything different than we’d concluded in our meeting, but hearing him validate our decisions made me feel a bit more confident. “That’s our plan.”
“Glad to hear your generation is as capable as we’d expected.”
I wasn’t sure we were, but we knew we needed to step up if we were going to survive. “Thanks, Dad. Let me know if you hear anything else. Give my best to Mom.”
“I’ll do both,” he said. “Remember to take care of yourself as well as Nick. You’re a team. He won’t survive without you.”
Put in such stark terms, I realized I hadn’t considered what would happen to Nick without me. “I will.”
The office was another fifteen minutes away, which was good. I needed the time to think about my next step.