Chapter 2
“Another game, Mr. Grey?” one of the Youth Harbor kids called out as he ran the basketball down the court.
Kasabian dropped down on the bleachers, catching his breath. “I’m done.”
“Getting old, Kasabian?” one of the kids chided.
“Yeah, thirty-two and over the hill.” Of course, he was old to these kids.
They couldn’t yet comprehend how long Crescents lived, how those years would drag on.
“Five hours straight, and I can’t take a break without getting harassed?
” Had he been this relentless when he lived here?
Yeah, probably, in his eagerness for a grown-up’s attention.
Most of the Harbor kids were Caidos, but some were Dragon or Deuce orphans.
Here, there was none of the separation that eventually happened between the Crescent classes.
They all belonged equally. And while Kasabian had felt at home here after the kidnapping, safe and accepted here, he had never truly belonged.
He’d been damaged in ways the other kids hadn’t.
“I’m done, too.” Daniel Portofino, another volunteer, flopped down beside him, panting. “Man, I can’t believe you do this and then work until three in the morning.”
“Helping out here is recreation for me.” He liked giving back to the place that had taken him in after his mother’s murder when he was twelve. “Actually, so is bartending.”
“I don’t know how you do that, either. All those emotions, people getting hot for each other, jealousy…that’s got to kill you.”
Even joy felt like a thousand razor blades across his soul.
“I’d rather suffer than shut myself off from humanity.
” Kasabian wasn’t about to tell anyone that he craved emotions.
He leaned back on the bleacher behind him.
“Ever been in love, Daniel?” At his surprised look, Kasabian added, “Not seriously in love, but crushing on someone even though you knew it wouldn’t work?
Because we’re Caido.” An innocent crush, he wanted to add, but his thoughts about Kye were far from innocent.
Daniel stared at him for a long second, some odd emotion flashing behind his dark blue eyes. “Once. Long time ago. You?”
Kasabian chuckled, shaking his head. “There’s this Deuce chick who hangs out at the Witch’s Brew, and she’s freakin’ amazing.”
“A Deuce?”
Caidos couldn’t pick up the emotions of other Caidos, but Kasabian didn’t need supernatural ability to see that the idea annoyed Daniel.
Who cared? It felt good to talk about her.
“Long blond hair, the creamiest skin I’ve ever seen, dresses all biker-chick in black leather and fishnets, and this attitude that completely captivates me, even more than that other stuff.
” He thought back over the last few nights that he’d seen her at the Brew.
“Last night she finally danced within sight of my bar, and man, can she move. She kept checking to see if I was watching.” And he had been, every spare second.
It had been a long time since he’d desired a woman, and then only fleetingly. With Kye, he couldn’t seem to stop.
“You going to act on it?”
“I have to do the Essex twice a night to dull the pain. But wanting her is as far as it goes.” The only thing he and Kye could ever do was exchange furtive glances.
“Smart. That kind of thing never works.”
“Actually, it could.” For normal Caidos, anyway. “She’s a Zensu Deuce, and she’s come up with a permanent Essex so the Caido is immune to his lover’s emotions.” Then he remembered that it wasn’t public knowledge yet, so he added, “But keep that to yourself.”
“Caidos should stick with their own.”
It was easier for Caidos to get together.
Desire didn’t hurt as much if they were in angel form, nor did any emotion, a layer of protection that allowed them to heal others.
Caidos could Invoke and partake in carnal activities with a non-Caido Deuce, but the numbness also muffled the excitement.
And, unfortunately, holding on to angel form for the sole purpose of getting off was difficult.
After a while, it was easier—hell, necessary—to douse desire altogether.
Until someone like Kye came along.
“Yeah, and that would be fine if there were plenty of Caido females, it wouldn’t be a problem.” Part of the curse their forebears passed on was relatively few females in their Crescent class. At least that was the theory.
“That’s why some males turn to each other. Ever considered that?”
Kasabian wondered if Daniel was hinting, especially given his hopeful expression. “I considered it, but I like women way too much. Their curves, the soft mounds of their beautiful breasts…” Kye popped into his mind again, and desire prickled through him. Yeah, she had some nice curves, all right.
Daniel’s mouth tightened, like he was preparing some kind of lecture, but his sulk turned into a speculative look. “A permanent Essex, you said? How does it work?”
Kasabian demonstrated the way Kye had.
“Who is she?” Daniel asked, not so judgmental anymore.
“Kye Rivers.” Damn but he liked the way her name rolled off his tongue. “But remember, she’s not offering this magick to just anyone. In fact, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“Kasabian!”
Hayden Masters approached from the end of the bleachers. He acknowledged Daniel with a nod but focused on Kasabian. “Can I talk to you for a sec?” He glanced at Daniel. “Sorry, but it’s confidential.”
Kasabian pushed up, excusing himself. He bumped knuckles with the big Caido, and they headed out of the gym.
Hayden lowered his voice. “Something came up at work that you need to know about. Even though you’re not supposed to know.”
“Gotcha.”
Hayden was a Vega in the Guard, the Crescent’s police force.
He’d shared some of his cases, mostly hunting down Crescents who broke the laws of the Hidden.
Rule Number One was to never reveal the magick of the Hidden to Mundanes.
Other rules focused on not using fangs, orbs, or other magickal weapons on either Mundanes or Crescents. Not that everyone obeyed that one.
They stepped out into the humid air, the afternoon sun cooking them until they moved beneath a tree by the tennis courts. Two Harbor residents were batting a ball half-heartedly back and forth.
Hayden braced his hand against the tree trunk.
“A five-year-old Caido boy was picked up this morning, just wandering the streets. The kid was weak, disoriented, and mute. Whatever he’d gone through traumatized him.
And from what I heard, he had this.” He yanked up his shirt to reveal a faint gray starburst over his diaphragm.
Kasabian felt a squeeze where his own scar was. “Son of a bitch. Whoever kidnapped us more than twenty years ago is still doing it.”
Kasabian remembered the group of kids who’d escaped with him, none with any memory of their captivity.
Once sexual abuse had been eliminated, based on physical exams, all they had were questions.
Four years of Kasabian’s captivity were locked away in a part of Kasabian’s brain no magick or hypnosis could reach.
Kye’s voice echoed in his mind: One Caido experienced a resurgence of buried memories.
“Did you talk to the kid?” Kasabian asked.
“My sergeant called me in because he knows about our ordeal and recognized that it was the same scar I have. He thought if I showed the kid, maybe he’d open up.
And I think he would have, only my sergeant abruptly called me off before I went in.
He said the Concilium was taking over the investigation.
Sensitive matters and some such bullshit. ”
Hayden smacked the tree, making leaves float down.
“Within minutes, the kid’s sucked into the system.
My boss wasn’t happy about it, but what’s he going to do, fight elders who are like the United Nations of Crescents?
Hell, they’re supposed to be representing, and us we don’t even know who’s in the Concilium.
My guess is that someone knows what these marks mean.
Wouldn’t be the first time something was covered up to protect society,” Hayden added with finger quotes.
“Five years old.” Kasabian shook his head in disgust. “Even younger than when we were taken.”
“If it’s like last time, the bastards are taking kids from hookers or drugged-out mothers who either are accepting a payoff or are too scared to report their kid missing.” A shadow passed over Hayden’s features.
In the rare instances where they were able to track down the mothers, they got a story about how some government official had offered to send the boy to a camp and get him away from the toxic situation while the mother got sober.
Pressure had a way of cracking people with magick.
Crescents had to worry about being incinerated by Dragons, stalked by demons, hurt by spells. Exposing their magick.
Hayden pushed away from the tree. “I’m going to do some digging.”
“I’ll check around, too.” Kasabian headed back into the building.
Cory, one of the guys who ran Harbor, was going over some details for the middle school kids’ overnight trip to the Everglades.
Maps and brochures were spread out all over the desk.
Cory looked up. “I keep expecting the headmaster of the Deuce Academy to postpone the trip, what with all the talk of the solar storm effects hitting as early as Thursday. Even the Mundane news is reporting possible GPS distortion and electric outages. We’ll feel it in deeper ways.
Some of the younger Caidos are already experiencing headaches and bad feelings. ”
“We’ve weathered them in the past. We’ll get through this one.” The solar storm was the least of Kasabian’s concerns. “Have you heard about any kids going missing recently?”
“You know Lyle?”
“Skinny Caido with choppy hair? Came here, what, a year ago? Keeps to himself.”