Chapter 5
5
Palmer
I was taken aback. I knew he was inquisitive––he had asked my lawyer copious questions about all parts of the bonding contract––but this…
I couldn’t ask for a better introduction into what I am than this.
I wiped my mouth, enjoying the flavors still dancing on my tongue. “I can only tell you what I was told by my family’s matriarchs. The Boo Hags traditionally had an oral history. I will tell you what was told to me.
“In the Old Place, where my people came from, things were similar to that of Earth. From what I remember being told, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were another dimension. The population of the planet was divided into beings we now call Boo Hags, who were biologically female, and men, who were not Boo Hags but something else and were biologically male. It was said that Boo Hags selected their mates to exchange energy with, while the men would pick the fiercest warriors to share their lifeforce with. These women would protect the family, guard their villages, and go to war when necessary. In turn, the men would take care of the home and the family, raising the next generation and caring for the elderly. It was a strong matriarchal society, and it was an honor to be chosen to be the mate of a Boo Hag, no matter what race of being you were. Many from other lands sought out their way of life and willingly married into Boo Hag families.
“Then the world ended. I’m not sure if it was like with your dinosaurs and a great comet came, or maybe the land erupted in fire. All we know is one of the mates of the Boo Hags opened a rift, and thousands of Boo Hags and their families were able to pass from the Old Place to our world. Legend says they came through at Stonehenge, but there is no proof of that, of course.”
I looked to Gatlin to see if I was boring him but found him watching me, his dinner forgotten.
Encouraged, I continued. “When my people came over, there were two jarring new realities to face. One was how they—how we looked nothing like the largest population of sentient beings. Our skin alone was enough to classify us as abnormal, even though humans came in a variety of shades themselves. As far as we knew, no one on Earth was red or had patterns like ours on their skins. The second issue was worse. We discovered that food from this world couldn’t sustain us. We withered. For unknown reasons, our men were unable to share their lifeforce as they had done in the Old Place.
“We ran into a deadly problem; we had to hide ourselves to keep from being hunted and killed because we resembled monsters of fairytales, but we needed to go out and find a new way to sustain our people, or thousands would die. So the warriors became the thieves, sneaking around in the darkness, trying to find a way to stave off death. Until one day, a Boo Hag discovered that the humans of this world had lifeforce to spare—lifeforce they regenerated in their sleep. So the women began going out at night to feed. It wasn't perfect like it was in the Old Place. There, energies were shared between a couple in love. Here, love was not a factor.
“The women discovered if they weren’t careful, they could take too much and kill a human in their sleep, but if they took too little, they wouldn’t have enough energy to survive. To balance this, the Boo Hags swept through towns and villages at night, taking sips of lifeforce from single people.”
“Why single people?” he asked.
“If they were single, it was less likely that there would be someone around to notice a full-grown woman sitting on their chest.” I sipped my lemonade, thinking of what to say next. “Once the Boo Hag gathered all that was needed, she would go home and share the lifeforce with her biologically female children and any elderly that needed it and could not make the trip.
“Our mates, though, were our hearts. Disease, wars, and disputes with the other supernatural creatures overwhelmed our numbers as we tried to adapt. We lost most of our males. This forced us to make alliances with other beings. And without our males, many of our women lost their minds,” I said darkly.
“I won't sugarcoat it; they forgot who we were as a people. They became a boogie man to humankind, stealing people’s lifeforce completely, knowing it would kill them, banding together to wipe out entire families. They slipped through the world like wraiths, killing indiscriminately. A particularly vicious group of Boo Hags discovered that extracting lifeforce through assault delivered a burst so powerful it was almost equal to what they’d drawn from their mates back in the Old Place. They started killing for power, not to protect. It went against everything our people stood for.
“Stories of us spread worldwide. In some cultures, people warned of kyuuketsuki who stole energy. Some mistook us for paralysis demons; others likened us to Selkies, saying we shed our skin and if you could possess it, you could vanquish us with salt. The Gullah people had the most correct information about us, having actually killed one of our number. A particularly vicious Boo Hag terrorized a small village on the coast of South Carolina and ended up losing her life for her greed.
“Not all Boo Hags chose a life of violence and avarice. My family traveled all over Europe, trying to establish ourselves in a way that felt less deceitful. We adapted. Changed ourselves to appeal to human men. Some were successful, but most eventually tired of having to acquire glamours and struggling daily to fit in. Nothing we did was ever enough to assuage the constant hunger, and we finally opted to move someplace where there was land to spare and we could start over in anonymity. We immigrated on ships just like the humans did. Once here, we met and made alliances with local supernaturals and were welcomed by quite a few indigenous tribes. My family settled with the Sewee Tribe for generations.”
“But you mentioned your father was Italian?” Gatlin questioned, shifting in his seat.
I wondered if he was comfortable, so I took the initiative and left the table, walking over to the seating in front of the fireplace.
I didn’t hear him move until I reached the long couch. I sat leaning against the arm, resting my chin on my fist and staring at the tile on the fireplace.
“My mother liked people. She was fascinated by the humans in the nearby town, but because of the stories spread by the Gullah people, she was afraid she would be discovered if she tried to mingle there. In the end, she decided to move away from the coast to Charleston and began to ‘sample humanity.’ As a teenager, I learned to my horror that was code for ‘to have as much sex as possible.’” I sighed, leaning back against the back of the couch and looking at the beautiful foliage plaster vines decorating the ceiling above.
Gatlin chuckled as he sat down at the other end of the couch. I could feel his eyes on me, and I angled my head to look at him, wrinkling my nose. “I promise it doesn’t matter what time period you are a teenager in; knowing your mom was into free love isn’t something you want to think about.”
Gatlin laughed louder, his deep voice washing over me like the warmth of a fire.
I chuckled. “She eventually married, though, to a rather wealthy man. She obtained a glamour from the local fae, choosing one that allowed her to move through society easily. If she was to be believed, she looked like a porcelain doll. She never revealed herself to her first husband, continuing to sample the large town at night. She remained looking youthful thanks to the magic, but he eventually died of smallpox. She took the children and escaped to a summer home they had at the coast.”
“You have siblings?” Gatlin once again looked at me like I came fully formed from the sea.
A bittersweet pain rose in my chest and I sat up, swiveling in my seat. My eyes met his before I continued. “I had siblings. Male siblings. They have long since passed. My mother set up her first husband’s children to inherit their father’s fortunes and kept a widow's sum. She married three more times, traveling up the East Coast, never revealing herself to her husbands, and having only male children. In those days, midwives were common, and it was easy to find a supernatural being to facilitate the births to help preserve her secret. It didn't seem to matter, though. All of her children came out looking like their fathers.
"Things changed when she met her fourth husband, my father, in New York. He was an artist; his preferred medium was wood. He was known for his elaborately carved newel posts. He did the one in the main entry if you’re interested.”
“He carved that epic lion?” He moved closer, the excitement on his face spilling over into his voice. “It’s so lifelike.”
“He did.” I smiled. “My parents loved each other, and he loved to spoil my mother. She loved the power of the lion.”
“Where do you come in?” he asked, picking up one of the pillows and drawing it to his chest.
“Oh, I came about ten years later. My mother had no plans to tell my father what she was once they were married, just as she never had with the others. She said that the necklace enchanted with her glamour came off—she didn't elaborate how, and I sincerely didn’t want to know––but suffice to say, suddenly there was a red woman in front of my father, and she had to explain what had happened and quick. The Catholic fear of demons was a real thing back then, and he thought he’d fallen in love with one.”
Gatlin’s eyebrows rose. “Oh shit, what did she do?”
“She asked him to listen,” I said, playing with the hem of my batwing sleeve. “She was honest with him, reminded him of all the times she had been blessed with holy water and entered the church. Then she reminded him of how much they loved one another, and he realized he didn’t care what she was as long as they were together. It wasn’t a problem, either, until I was born.
“The Gullah people were correct in that we are red, as I’ve said, but we aren’t just raw muscle. We do have skin. The supernatural midwife who attended my birth, after wiping me down, realized the red wasn't blood and that I was like my mother. As soon as she presented me to my parents, they knew I was a girl and that keeping my skin a secret would be hard to do in the city. Glamours were hard to come by in the north. Not a lot of the fae settled there because the big cities were full of iron. And even if they were lucky enough to find a fae who made glamours, the chances of baby me keeping it on and not accidentally exposing my heritage were slim. So they decided the best course of action would be to leave.
“While my mother’s first three husbands never discovered her true form, many of her boys figured things out by the time they reached their teen years. Which meant she was able to still have contact with much of her family. Some of her sons married supernaturals, and a couple even became monsters themselves. Mother wrote to her surviving children and asked if we could move back home. They agreed and told her about the community they had been building for monsters. We relocated, and I grew up amongst my nieces and nephews, running wild and getting into mischief.”
“And that’s the story of Palmer Duvall?” he asked, a soft smile on his face.
“More or less,” I agreed, even though there was so much more. But perhaps not for tonight.
Gatlin rubbed a hand along his chin, his fingers caressing his five o’clock shadow.
The poor man is tired. I should––
“Our history is pretty simple when you get into how we immigrated here,” he said, tracing the pattern on the pillow he was holding. “You are right that most of my ancestors are from Europe. I want to say we had it pretty good, considering. I can’t speak for Gemmy, but she’s only ever risen above everything thrown at her. We’ve honestly never known how to live any other way. It was awesome growing up knowing ASL, like an extra layer to that whole ‘twins have their own language’ stereotype. We were just always there for each other. If anyone messed with her, I kicked their ass, and she made sure I studied for tests, encouraged my reading habit, and told me I wasn’t allowed to be the ‘airheaded twin.’
“Then our parents were killed in that car accident, and I–– I just feel so fucking stupid,” His eyes were glassy; his hands were gripping the pillow tightly.
I reached out, moving closer, my hands landing on his before I could stop myself. I knew he abhorred my touch, and yet I couldn’t watch him do that to himself. “You have done your best.”
I sighed, gently loosening his grip on the cushion. “I had a little brother, Clarence. Human, of course. He was always out there trying to do things on his own. Clarence was twenty-seven when he died of consumption. He lived far enough away that I didn’t notice when he started to cough. By the time we knew, it was too late for magic. I tried anyway. I made stupid deals. In the end, I could only feed him enough lifeforce to keep him comfortable when he died. I failed him.”
I’d managed to keep him from mangling the pillow and was holding his hands, our fingers loosely intertwined. “Pardon,” I murmured, moving to withdraw my hands.
He flexed his hands, his grip firm but not bruising. “It’s okay,” he said, looking into my eyes. He made a decision; I could see something reflected in those blue depths before he pulled me to him. Shocked, I let him cradle me in his arms, his cheek resting on top of my head, my ear positioned just over his thumping heart.
My eyelids fluttered closed; tears trailed down my cheeks for the first time in decades, and Gatlin Rose held me while I cried.
Oh, you darling, dangerous, sweet man, you are going to break my heart, and I am going to let you.