Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy: Book One) (33 page)

49

A Truth That Changes Everything

Friday, June 8th

PATRICK

T
he ceremony was done. We were now high school graduates running out to face the brave new world. The auditorium lobby was swarming with hundreds of happy people, smiling, taking pictures, congratulating each other. I searched the crowd for my new family. It felt a little strange to say that, while at the same time it just felt right. Like, now that I was part of them I was whole; as if I had been unknowingly incomplete before.

When they had called my name—my
new
name—during the ceremony, heads had turned and there had been more than a few confused whispers. I had just smiled like an idiot. Travis had said that he had changed the records, but somehow I hadn’t believed him until I actually heard them reading off “Patrick Centrina.”

But now all that was over. I could leave my old life behind and just be Patrick Centrina. Well, at least for another week, that is. Then I would become Patrick Galathea and leave the rest of my human life behind. I wasn’t afraid anymore that I might die. Maybe it was because I had faced death so many times already in the past few months. Or that Travis had assured me that, as a Marked One, I had a ninety-nine percent chance of living through this. Or maybe it was because I believed that the universe wouldn’t have put me through so much just to kill me.

With Nualla’s hand firmly clasped in mine, I pushed past some people and walked straight into one of the last people I ever thought I would see again, especially
here
.

“Mom!” I yelped, releasing Nualla’s hand in shock.

My mother smiled down at me like she always did, but this time something seemed—
off
. There was something unnerving about her—well
other
than the fact that she had two dusky red horns growing out of her pale blond hair. “Patrick, sweetie, why didn’t you tell me your graduation was today?”

I just stared at her dumbly, unsure of what to say. What exactly
did
you say in a situation like this?

She ignored my shock and continued on as if it was any normal day, and I was sitting on the couch watching TV. “If I hadn’t found the invitation in the mail, I might have missed it.” Her eyes drifted to Nualla. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to you friend here?”

“Patrick, we should go,” Nualla said uneasily behind me.

Normally I would have listened to her—just walked away. But standing there, something inside of me finally snapped. My vision flashed white, and I could feel it bubbling up inside me; anger. I had held it in for so long that I hadn’t even noticed it had been there, building through the years, threatening to boil over.

“No, I have something I need to say to her,” I stated through clenched teeth as I stared down my mother. “‘Why didn’t I
tell
you?’ Because I’ve been gone since the day of the attack. Four
weeks
! Have you called me even
once
in all that time? No! Did you even
notice
I was gone?” I shouted at her.

My mother looked around nervously; people were staring, but I couldn’t give a crap. “Patrick honey, I know I haven’t been home a lot lately, but I’ve been really busy at work and—”

“What kind of mother doesn’t notice for four fucking weeks that her son moved out!” I screamed, my anger ripping through my throat.

“Patrick, what’s this about moving out? You can’t move out, you’re still a child,” my mother stated in a patronizing voice.

“My eighteenth birthday was months ago! But like everything
else
in my life, you missed it!”

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Alex. He smiled reassuringly down at me before glaring at my mother. The rest of my new family moved closer around me, letting me know I wouldn’t have to face this alone. I felt a slight impact to the air that signaled they were throwing up their illusions, a sensation I wouldn’t have been able to feel or even
notice
a few months ago. And that’s how I knew that this conversation was heading into a territory humans weren’t meant to tread.

My mother briefly glared at them before looking back at me again. “Patrick, who are these people?”

“My family, who the hell did you
think
they were?” I snapped, looking at her defiantly.

“Don’t be silly, I’m your—your father and I are your family,” my mother sputtered, visibly shaken by my statement.

“You and Dad,
family
? Hell, I haven’t seen Dad in so long I can’t even remember what he looks like, and I have a nearly eidetic memory, for crying out loud!” I screamed at her; I was beyond angry now. “No,
you
stopped being my family a long time ago. Someone—
something
like you could never be my family.”

My mother just gaped at me, her eyes huge, her mouth hanging open. “How…?”

“Oh, I know what you are, I know all about it,” I answered, tapping on the glasses. “It was one of the reasons I left; as if I needed more than one.”

She just continued to stare at me, swallowing hard.

“Get away from my brother!” someone shouted abruptly from behind us and I whipped around to see Travis moving swiftly toward us.

“No, he’s my
son
,” my mother answered venomously.

Travis pushed past us to stand protectively in front of me. I was going to ask him what on earth was going on, but I thought, in his current state, it was better just to back away and ask questions later.

“He was
never
your son! You stole him from us, from
me
, you monster!”

“We only replaced what Joshua Centrina stole from us,” my mother said simply, unfeelingly, her eyes cold as ice.

“Don’t you
dare
say his name, you murdered him—you murdered both of them!” Travis screamed, lunging forward, fists flying.

I’m pretty sure he would have beaten her to a pulp if Alex and Shawn hadn’t grabbed him. “What are you
doing
?! She has to answer for this!” Travis screamed trying to break free from their arms.

“She has a blade, Travis!” Alex shouted as he threw all his weight into pulling Travis back.

And that’s when I saw it, a small silver blade with acid green stuff pulsing around it like someone had thrown dye in water. I had been so focused on her face I hadn’t seen her slide out the blade. I was fairly certain that had been her plan all along; for us
not
to notice.

Glaring at us with pure hate, my mother began slowly backing toward the door until she was gone. And we could do nothing but watch her go; it was a rotten feeling.

Minutes passed and finally Alex and Shawn released their hold on Travis. He glared after my mother as if his eyes could throw knifes into her back.

“I need to get some air. I’ll meet the rest of you outside,” Travis announced abruptly before he took a few steps in the direction my mother had gone. Alex’s hand darted out to grip his shoulder, and he whipped back around. “
What
?” he growled through gritted teeth.

“I cannot let you cause a diplomatic incident,” Alex said in a firm voice.

“But she’s a Kakodemoss!”

“And the Protectorate will detain her outside. She will stand trial before the Grand Council once I appoint a new one,” Alex stated firmly.

“She
deserves
to die,” Travis said defiantly.

“If we murder them in the streets it makes us no different than them, Travis.”

They stared each other down for a very long time before Travis folded and looked away.

“I’ll walk out with you to your car,” Alex said, putting a gentle hand on Travis’ shoulder; it wasn’t an offer. “The rest of you say goodbye to your classmates and come out when you’re finished.”

Nualla and I came out to find Travis standing next to a glossy black Porsche, staring sourly into the distance. The others were already standing next to The Embassy car, looking uneasy. I felt a little bad making them wait for us, but I had had a lot of people to say goodbye too, most of which I would probably never see again.

Nualla wasted no time making a beeline for Travis. When she was only an arms-length from him she demanded, “Travis, what in the
hell
was all that back there?”

He pushed away from the car and opened his door. “We can’t talk here, get in the car.”

Travis followed after The Embassy car, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he spoke. “The results from the tests came in this morning.”

Nualla looked over at him anxiously. “Is he—in danger?”

“No, he’ll be fine for a little while longer,” he replied, not taking his eyes off the road. His outburst back in the auditorium lobby had been too passionate to be fake. But the things he had said had left me with a lot of unanswered questions swirling around in my head. I was smart enough to know the answers, but I was afraid to let myself believe they could be true.

“This isn’t about the headaches, is it?” I asked in an unsteady voice.

“No, it’s not,” Travis answered, looking back at me briefly before returning his eyes to the road. “When they ran your blood work, I also had them run a DNA test on us. I’m sorry, but there were just too many coincidences to ignore.” He paused, swallowing hard. “The tests turned up some pretty interesting things as it turns out.”

“Wait, you said
us
,” I repeated cautiously.

“Yeah, turns out you really
are
Patrick Centrina,” Travis said with a wry smile.

And that’s when everything I thought I knew went up in flames.

50

Just a Feeling

Friday, June 15th

NUALLA

“H
ey good lookin’, what you up to?” Travis asked cheerily from behind me.

I turned around with a wide smile. “Hey, Travis.” I gave him a hug before turning back to look at the activity in The Embassy lobby. “What’s going on here?” I asked as I gestured toward all the people with equipment and what-not walking purposefully around The Embassy lobby.

“Well, after the attack on The Embassy, Nathan has really started stepping up the security around here,” Travis answered before taking a sip of his coffee. “But if you ask me, I think it was an inside job.”

“
What
?”

“Nualla, I know these systems, to do what they did they would had to have had extensive knowledge of how we run things around here. This wasn’t just some random hit on an Embassy by Kakodemoss, this was precise.”

“You sure you’re not just being paranoid, Travis?” I asked, folding my arms.

Travis leaned in closer. “No, we have a mole, I bet my life on it.”

“Should we call off the wedding?”

“No, with all this new stuff we should be fine,” Travis answered with a reassuring smile.

“So there’s no danger?”

Travis leaned in even closer and said in a voice barely above a whisper. “Not unless Nathan’s the mole.”

“Nathan, Head of Security Nathan? Are you
serious
?” I asked dubiously.

“Hey, it’s the only way I can think of that they could have pulled off what they did,” Travis answered, shrugging.

“Okay, you really
are
paranoid, Travis,” I said, rolling my eyes. Then I looked at him a little concerned. I wanted to say I would believe anything he said, but this was just plain crazy. “
Please
tell me you haven’t mentioned this to anyone else?”

“Nope, don’t have any proof; just a feeling,” Travis replied as he scanned the room with his eyes.

“Speaking of feelings, I have a
feeling
you are currently standing someone up.”

“Who?” Travis asked, furrowing his brow.

“Your
brother
. You were supposed to have met up with him half an hour ago.”

“Oh
fuck
!” He whipped out his phone and then grimaced at it. “Yeah, gotta go.”

“Don’t let him get too drunk, Travis!” I called out to him as he all but ran out of The Embassy.

PATRICK

C
onnor, Shawn, and I stood on New Montgomery street outside Connor’s apartment home complex, sipping coffee and waiting for Travis to show up; he was already nearly an hour late.

“Hey guys,” Travis called out as he walked quickly up the street to meet us.

“You’re late,” I pointed out as I sighed dramatically.

“Yeah, sorry about that I was—” he started then looked over at Connor. “—Uh, with Nualla looking over last minute stuff for tomorrow.”

“Who are you?” Connor asked, as he looked Travis up and down.

“His brother, who are
you
?”

“His best friend,” Connor replied, standing up a little taller until confusion spread over his face. “
Wait
, Patrick doesn’t have a brother.”

“Sure he does;
me
,” Travis stated as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his black Air Force bomber jacket.

Connor looked over at me like he thought Travis might be crazy. “Connor, this is one of those things I
really
can’t talk about,” I said apologetically.

“Dude, what the
hell
?” Connor said in exasperation as he glared at me.

“Naw it’s okay, we can just wipe his memory if we say too much,” Travis said as he tapped my shoulder.

“
Seriously
?” Connor asked in disbelief.

“You’re
already
saying too much, Travis,” I said with a sigh as I rolled my eyes at him.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” He pulled an object from his pocket and held it up in front of Connor’s face. “Now, I want you to look right here and hold still.” Connor stared transfixed at the object and then Travis whacked him on the head with it. “
Geez
, you’re gullible. It’s just a pen, you idiot. What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Shawn and I couldn’t help bursting into laughter as Connor rubbed his head.

“I don’t need a device to erase your memory. Just ask Patrick, he seems to do a pretty good job of
that
on his own,” Travis said with a crooked smile.

“You’re taking us drinking?” I asked, a little surprised. Since the day Travis had given me the glasses no one had let me have a drop, but I really couldn’t blame them.

“Bingo,” he replied with a mischievous grin.

“Sweet,” Shawn said, grinning broadly.

We were going drinking,
great
. There was just one problem, Travis was twenty-one and Shawn and I had fake IDs, but Connor sure as hell didn’t. But then something occurred to me. “You’re going to do that same trick Nualla did, aren’t you?” I asked suspiciously.

“Why Patrick, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Travis said not too convincingly as he started walking back down the street.

The look on Connor’s face when we all but strolled into the bar was priceless. Thankfully after the initial shock he played it cool, so no one would suspect us. We ordered a round of drinks and took a seat at one of the empty tables.

A few sips into his drink, Connor looked over at Travis suspiciously. “
Travis
…why does that name sound so familiar?” He narrowed his eyes at Travis then a look of shocked disgust covered his face. “Wait,
Travis
, as in guy-who-kissed-Nualla Travis?”

“The very same, I’m afraid,” Travis admitted, a bit chagrined.

Connor just looked at me, and I had to laugh. “It’s a really,
really
long story, Connor.”

“Dude, I have been okay until this point with all your secret keeping crap, but you need to explain some of this shit.”

I just looked at him. I really had no idea where to start, or what would get us in trouble for telling him.

Travis put down his glass and looked at me and Shawn before he spoke. “It’s okay, Patrick, you can tell him about the adoption.”

I choked on my drink. So
that’s
how he was going to play this.

“Adoption?” Connor asked, looking confused.

“Why don’t you tell him, Travis, you know a lot more about it then I do.”
Like
any
of it, for example.

“When I was six and Patrick was nearly three our parents were killed in an accident. We had no other family, so we went to an orphanage. Patrick got adopted, but they never told him. When I found him, his adoptive parents and him had a bit of a falling out.”

“Did you find out he was your brother before or after you made a move on Nualla?” Connor asked, narrowing his eyes at Travis again.

“After,” Travis answered quickly.

Connor just looked between Travis and me for a while before saying, “That’s some soap opera shit right there.”

You really have no idea Connor.

Sometime later at God-only-knows-thirty we all stumbled out of the bar.

“Geez, you three can drink like fish,” Connor said as he tried unsuccessfully to dial his phone.

“Who you callin’?” I asked as I tried to keep my feet firmly underneath me.

“Someone to come get me,” Connor answered as he kept jabbing the phone with his finger.

“Dude, don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t get you wasted then send you home to get yelled at,” Travis said as he flagged down a taxi. It screeched to a halt at the curb and Travis steered Connor toward it with Shawn at their heels. “You guys are crashing at my place.”

“Travis, if I have a hangover at my wedding tomorrow, I’m going to punch you,” I slurred as I drunkenly wobbled toward the cab.