Chapter Seven #2
They swoop forward, grim-faced, take hold of the parents’ arms, and hustle them toward the elevator. “Could you call someone to take over until we get back?” one of the enforcers asks. The reception is the only area in the offices that isn’t warded and thus needs to be guarded at all times.
“We’ll wait here,” Andrew assures him, then hisses again at the parents. “Forget you even know who David is,” he advises. “I’m not as nice as him and Caolan, and I’ve wanted to come after you for centuries.”
They’re both still sputtering when the elevator doors close on them.
Without turning around, Andrew raises his voice and commands, “There had better not be anyone standing around watching right now. And I don’t ever want to hear gossip about this.”
I look over my shoulder to see who he’s talking to. There’s a small cluster of people on the other side of the security gate, but they scatter before he’s finished speaking.
Even without looking at David, I can feel the humiliation and pain radiating from him.
I make a snap decision. “Andrew, can you give our apologies to the migration teams, please? David and I have a last-minute issue to deal with.” I don’t wait for him to answer, just grab David’s hand and the cardboard tray with our coffee and pull him along to the hallway with all the meeting rooms. One of them has to be empty.
I’d take him home instead, but there’s no way he’d agree to that—I’m surprised he hasn’t argued about missing the meeting.
Finally I find an empty room. I let go of David’s hand to flip on the lights and close the door. He goes over to the small table and slumps into one of the chairs, putting his head in his hands.
Joining him, I pull the coffee cups out of the tray and place his beside him, making sure to nudge it against his arm so he knows it’s there. He sighs and lifts his head. His face is still pale, and his eyes are glassy.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he mumbles, avoiding my gaze and picking up his cup.
“I’m sorry you had to go through it. And that those people have any connection to you.”
He huffs. “Yeah. I’m sorry about that too.” We sit there in silence for a few moments, sipping our almost-too-cool-now coffee.
“I guess I should explain,” he says at last.
“No. Only if you want to. There’s no obligation between us.” I hope he understands that. This is obviously a difficult subject for him, and I’m not going to force him to talk about it merely to satisfy my own curiosity.
A tiny smile curves his mouth, and some color comes back to his cheeks. Or at least, he loses the pasty pallor. “There’s an obligation between us,” he murmurs. “You’re not… like them.”
For a moment, I’m confused, and then the bottom drops out of my world and I barely stop myself from jerking back. He thought I was like them ? He thought I was the kind of person who would neglect my own child? Is that why he’s been so reluctant to accept our connection?
Why would he think that of me?
I realize he’s still talking and force myself to listen.
“… people think I’m the way I am because of my childhood, that it’s a post-traumatic reaction, but I’ve always liked structure.
That’s what made it so difficult. You saw how they forgot Jane even existed.
If someone had taken me from them when I was a toddler, they would have forgotten me, too.
They still did forget me sometimes, until they came home and I was there.
” He sucks in a breath. “It was chaos, and I hated it.”
I don’t say anything. My whole being stings with the knowledge that he thought I could be like that, someone who would cause him pain and force him to live a life he hates.
He didn’t know you.
The voice is insistent as David speaks haltingly about his childhood. He only knew that you had no schedule, couldn’t keep time, and declared your feelings within seconds of meeting him.
The sting eases a little but isn’t completely washed away.
I can see how these things would add up in David’s mind to me being unreliable like his parents—after all, at that time, he knew nothing about elves or how we function.
But it still hurts that it took until now for him to let go of those fears.
He knows me now, surely. We’ve been almost inseparable for weeks.
His voice fades into silence, and I meet his gaze. There’s an edge of fear there—of what, I’m not sure.
“You said before that Andrew rescued you.” I’m not ready to talk about the rest.
That little smile comes back. “Yes. When I was eleven, they dragged me to a house party. There were never any other children there, unless the hosts had some, and these didn’t.
Sometimes I liked that better, because it meant I was free to explore the estate and the library, if there was one.
But it usually also meant that nobody knew what to do with me.
I had no nanny or tutor to make sure I was fed, and of course I wasn’t allowed to attend meals with the adults, so…
” He trails off, his gaze becoming distant, then shakes his head.
“Anyway, this particular estate had an excellent library, and I was spending all my time there, researching and practicing weaves I really shouldn’t have known anything about at that age.
Andrew was one of the guests, and he came into the library one morning—looking for a book, I guess.
I don’t think I ever asked him why he was there.
He was surprised to see me, but you know Andrew.
Once he realized what I was doing, he asked who was supposed to be watching me, and I said nobody, and then he asked some more questions.
Somehow the whole story came out.” He grimaces.
“I knew from meeting other children that my life was not the same as theirs, but I didn’t realize how different it was.
Andrew got angry—you saw him today. That’s nothing compared to how he was then.
He was swearing and kicking furniture and ranting about how, with fertility in the community being so poor, you’d think people would treasure their children if they were lucky enough to have them. Then he asked me what I wanted.”
He falls silent and stares down at his cup.
“That was the first time anyone had ever asked me that—what I wanted. Not just what I wanted in life, but ever. I’d never even been asked what I wanted for lunch.
It was… terrifying. And so wonderful.” Sighing again, he pinches the bridge of his nose.
“I didn’t know how to answer—didn’t even know what options were available to me. ”
The hurt begins to seep away, and a strong desire to go after his parents replaces it.
“He saw that I was struggling and explained that if I wanted, he would find someone else for me to live with, someone who would take better care of me. Or he could get me a place at a good boarding school.” He laughs, just a little one, but my heart sings to hear it.
“As soon as he mentioned school, I knew what I wanted. I’d been so envious of other people being able to learn things.
So he went and found my parents, told them—and I wasn’t there for this part, but some people who were have since told me about it—he told them that they would sign over guardianship of me to him or he would rip out their intestines and make them eat them, and then he packed me up and we left.
We went to London for a few days while he made inquiries about good schools, and then he took me on a tour of several and let me pick the one I wanted. ”
I already liked Andrew, but now I’m ready to declare him my brother.
“How did you choose?” I ask. My voice is just a little bit hoarse, and I clear my throat.
David grins. “They were all fairly similar, but at one, I saw a succubus girl about my age arguing with a shifter boy. I didn’t hear much of the argument, but at the end she said, ‘You have to come with me, because if you don’t, you’re going to get so boring you’ll turn into a stick, and then you’ll only be good for playing fetch with hellhounds.
’ The boy and I both laughed—Andrew did too—and she turned around and saw us and said, ‘Who knew going swimming was such a burden. Do you want to come?’ That made up my mind. And they were my first friends.”
“Do you still talk to them?” David is not the kind of person to let friendships fade away easily.
He nods. “The boy was Percy.” His mouth presses into a firm line. “The girl was Lily. She… she died last year.”
I reach over and take his hand. I’ve heard a little bit about Lily from Alistair and Noah. They were giving me background information on Dr. Tish, and Sam’s kidnapping was mentioned. Noah never met her, and Alistair barely knew her, but they both emphasized how difficult her death was for the team.
“I’m so sorry.”
His eyes go glassy again, and he makes a sound that might be a sob. “She would have liked you so much. And been so angry with me for the way I’ve treated you.” His hand tightens around mine.
“The way you’ve treated me?” I echo, confused.
He nods. “Having sex with you but not committing to more. Don’t misunderstand, Lily wasn’t a prude, but she was always upfront.
This thing we’ve got, where you’re honest about how you feel and I’m insisting it’s just sex…
she would have hated that.” He hesitates.
“I wish she were still here to lecture me about being an idiot.”