Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) (34 page)

And then there was his father. Did he look like that man? Mathieu shared his blood, but what more in common did they have? Wasn’t a father supposed to teach his son to be a man? Show him how to protect the things he loved? The basis of his insecurities stemmed for a non-existent father, and he knew it. A father was supposed to be the person he learned from, he could turn to when things got tough. But he didn’t have that, never would. There was no one for him to rely on, no one for him to turn to for advice.

Sometime during his painful musings about his father, he started to see it. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was seeing, but very slowly, something took form before his eyes. But, then he realized it was a person, something like a teenager. He was blurry at first and Mathieu could only see that he had ruffled brown hair that stopped just before it was in his eyes.

The longer he looked at the other, the clearer he became.
The next thing to come into focus was his sloped nose that ended in a button-like point, his mouth quirked up at the corner in a soft smile. His eyes were undistinguishable, but Mathieu could see that he had a few very light freckled over the bridge of his nose. The teen’s skin was as smooth as porcelain, a healthy glow to it.

It was as the other’s eyes, big and dark gray, came into focus that a full smile took his face. Then, they mystery he reached out into the space between them.

Mathieu opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Frowning he lifted a hand out to meet the
other’s
, but he still could see nothing but the boy. He tried to move closer to him, but the tingling from before became a sharp stabbing that held him back. Just as slowly as the male had appeared, so did the object that appeared in his outstretched hand. It was small, no bigger than a tennis ball. The thing was sleek white with one icy blue eye and one celadon green. The nose was a light pink that wiggled as the thing sniffed the air and its tail twitched.

The boy moved closer to him, the thing still held between them. Mathieu wasn’t completely positive, but he was pretty sure that the small thing was a Shadowrider. Needing to know, he kicked out with his feet and pulled at the darkness with his arms, determined to reach the pair. The stabbing pain turned into a raking feeling that could be equated to skin being ripped straight off his body. Tears of pain started to blur his vision, but still he pushed on. It couldn’t be much further to reach them.  Just as he felt the darkness give an inch, the boy frowned and tilted his hand, dropping the adorable thing.

A silent scream ripped from Mathieu’s throat as he
ignored his mind when it told him he couldn’t fight the darkness, and dived for it. He sailed through the nothing and managed to catch it, curling protectively around it and rolling, slamming into the boy who toppled and fell on top him.

And then the three of them were being pulled, practically sucked up out of the darkness as if through a straw. Up, up, up they flew, going faster and faster until the darkness broke and they were in a crumpled ball on the upstairs floor of Nathan’s house.

Blinking away the stars he was seeing, Mathieu looked around, eyes resting on Solomon, who was holding Tesla by the scruff.
Sorry, Mathieu…he made me.
The black Shadowrider whimpered.

Solomon’s face was tight with stress again, eyes locked on the naked boy who looked like a fish out of water. The boy curled around himself, hiding his nudity, mouth gaping wordlessly. Mathieu looked down, too.

“Mathieu, you can explain…this later. Right now, we have something bigger to deal with than your stupidity.” Solomon said shortly.

Holding the baby Shadowrider to his chest protectively, he sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nathan is fading.
Quickly.”

That was all that needed to be said to have him on his feet, running down the stairs. He hooked a left into the redhead’s room, only to see him frothing at the mouth, body arched like a bow, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Slowly, Nathan dropped back to the bed.

Mathieu kept his new companion tucked against him and rushed to the bed, touching the pulse in his neck. His heart rate was through the roof, and he was burning up. “Nathan? Can you hear me?”

His eyes flew open and he grabbed Mathieu’s arm in a death grip.
“L-Lione?”

“What? No. It’s Mathieu. Hey, stay with me.”

“S-so….sorry…Li….” Nathan’s hand fell away and he felt the pulse under his fingers stop.

Mathieu’s eyes widen, “Nathan, no!”

Elise knocked him aside, literally, starting chest compressions immediately as tears streamed down her face. “No, come on, sweetie, come on! Wake up. Please, Nate…
please
…” She collapsed onto his chest, sobbing. Solomon stood beside her, rubbing her back. “D-damn it, Nate, you can’t die on me! We have so much left to do. We’re gonna free Korinth from its borders, from Unith’s oppressions…we were going to f-find your son…” She clung to his still body, hers racked with sobs.

A shiver of sadness slid down his spine and he turned away, unable to watch. Elise’s cries echoed through him, tearing at him from inside. The warmth against his chest stretched its little nose up, eyes blinking comforting at him. “Thanks.” He leaned down and kissed its nose, cradling it lovingly. Looking back over his shoulder at a grieving Elise and a stressed Solomon, He felt Darcia’s hand on his shoulder.

There was a little gasp and he looked at the door to Adele
standing there, a hand over her mouth with Josette standing just behind her.

“We’re back!” Avanon yelled, dragging Elric behind her. Their hands were clasped but not in a romantic way.

“Damn
it,
now tell me what’s wrong?” Elric said, trying to read the expressions of the others from afar. He wound through the house behind Avanon, stepping carefully over the broken shards of glass, and came to stop by Mathieu. The other healer was tall with sandy blond hair, thin glasses and dark blue eyes. “Tell me what happened.”

Adele made a guilty sound from where she stood in the corner of the room, Josette beside her. “I-I tried to heal him, but it went wrong…”

Elric sighed and approached the still Nathan. “Let me look.”

As he was examining the redhead, Avanon hovered beside his shoulder, hands moving nervously. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find you faster. Can you fix him?”

“Well,” Elric stood and wiped his hands on his pants, “I think that if I’d been here, maybe, but even so…Adele, I’m assuming you to tried to heal it, thinking this was naturally occurring.”

“Y-yeah…”

Elric pushed his glasses up and rubbed between his eyes. Without his glasses he looked much younger, no longer just shy of thirty, but closer to twenty-four. “This was deliberate, most likely the effects of a slow acting poison.
If you’d tried to slow down his metabolism, his body might have been able to combat it.”

“So it’s her fault he’s dead!” Elise said
,
her face stained with tears.

Josette stepped in front of Adele protectively.
“Back off, Elise.
She did her best.”

“Clearly, that wasn’t enough!” The pink haired girl yelled.

Fire flickered at the raven’s fingertips, her eyes glowing. “You didn’t do anything to help! If anyone is to blame, it’s you! Why didn’t your stupid vision see this coming, huh?”

Mina, who had mostly been AWOL since returning to the Tri-District Manor, stepped between the angry
woman
.
“Enough, Josette.
Unless you’d like to find out when I really can do.”
Her eyes were narrowed for a mere moment before he went to Elise, hugging her supportively.

Mathieu cleared his throat. “Okay everyone…let’s calm down. Fighting isn’t going to help anyone. If Nathan really is gone,” he looked to Elric, who nodded sadly, “then we can only move forward.” Suddenly, it seemed that he had the room’s undivided attention. “Okay…Solomon and Avanon will go inform Lenore that we need a coffin made, Adele and Elric will preserve the body as best they can, and Josette, go with Darcia to prepare a burial site. Mina, get Elise to bed before she snaps.” He swallowed hard and waited. Slowly, the others hesitantly moved into action, executing his orders. Waiting until the others had cleared out, he turned to
Elric. “After this, when we have a moment, I need you to explain to me slow acting poison.”

At an acknowledgement from the male healer, he went to his and Solomon’s room. Digging in the dresser, he tried to find the smallest pair of clothing that he could. He had a naked teenager upstairs to deal with. Once he had an outfit, he headed back upstairs; he was careful not to jar the baby Shadowrider.

He’s over here.
Nikola called out in his mind from under the desk.

“Thanks. Nik, can you watch…uh…it for a moment?” He held out his little charge.

Tesla looked over at him,
It’s
a her. She’s very pretty.
Made out of your desire to find happiness.

Hope.
Nikola intoned.
You should call her Niveus. It means hope, or

faith
.

“That’s a good name.
Niveus.”
Kissing the top of her head, he laid her on the desk next to Tesla before going around and leaning down. “Hey, guy…do you speak?”

“…Yes.” The male blinked up at him in a disoriented way.

Mathieu nodded at him, smiling. This was encouraging. “Do you have a name?”

“…Jo. My name is Jo.” He smiled his shy smile from before, his voice a gentle tenor.

“I brought you some clothing. Is that okay? They might be a bit big.”

Jo nodded and crawled out from under the desk like an unstable foal, standing. He was only a few inches shorter than Mathieu. As he put on the clothing, however, he looked much smaller, practically swimming in the garments. “Thanks.”

Flopping into a chair, Mathieu looked at the other. “Okay, now, maybe you can tell me where you came from?” Jo looked around owlishly, seemingly taking everything in.

Jo eventually looked at Mathieu, but it seemed to take a long time for his mouth to start working. “I…came from inside you. I don’t know why I’m out here instead of in there, thought. But I can’t go back, now. I’m stuck.” Jo sat on the floor, legs folded under him. And then his eyes glazed over, his upper lip pulling back slightly. “I don’t require your pity. I can handle myself.”

Mathieu raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in demeanor. “Okay?”

Jo blinked a few times, his face sweet yet again. Then, he giggled. “Oh, just ignore me. I heard yelling earlier. What’s going on?”

Mathieu raised one eyebrow, but let the moment pass. He didn’t know
who,
or
what
, Jo was, but if he was in the house, he deserved to know what he was walking down into. “Nathan, the man whose house this is, died. I guess he was poisoned. I don’t really understand how it works.”

“Well why aren’t you down there?” Jo tilted his head
curiously.

Sighing, Mathieu reached out and picked up Niveus. “Everyone else had something to be doing, and I didn’t.” He looked Jo over; the boy seemed very…plain. “I thought you would be thankful for some clothing.”

“Well, thank you. Not to be overly rude, but could I get something to eat?
Pretty please?”
Jo smiled rather blankly at him despite how sweet his words were.

Chapter

Fifteen

“Really, it didn’t hurt that much…” Lenore said as Elric healed her hand.
“Just a scratch.”

It had been a week since Nathan’s funeral and life was slowly moving on, just as Mathieu’s had after Avian died. Lenore had finished his sword, which was truly a work of art: it had a beautiful hilt with grooves for his
hand, a guard that tilted down around his hand, and the blade was the width of a broadsword but had a section cut out of the center, creating two thin blades with an area for him to bounce his energy between. She had also fashioned a scabbard for it. During the week that had passed, Solomon had actually smiled at him once, Avanon and Elric had been hanging around each other more, Akira had returned to Unith to play mistress again, and Jo had taken to living with them pretty well. He was bunking with Elric because he ‘refused to sleep in a dead man’s room’.