Worlds Apart (20 page)

He stared at her, confused. “Yes,
but… the situation has changed. Doesn't she understand
that?”

Shandari shook her
head.

Clive turned to Kasia. “You know
my reasons for not seeing her again. You've explained it to her.
Doesn't she understand that my reasons were good?”

“I believe she does,” Kasia said.
“And, in fact, those reasons still stand—something you seem to be
forgetting. You cannot be involved with a Flatland woman unless she
agrees to stay in Kaarmanesh.”

“So let me talk to her about
it.”

Kasia closed her eyes and repeated
in a monotone, “She doesn't want to see you, Clive.”

“So that's it?” Despair fueled his
body, disregarding injuries. He slammed a fist into the bed. “I
don't even get a chance to be involved? To know my own child? What
about that? Even if I never see her again, don’t I have a right to
help raise my son? Other werewolves do, if they have children
before the bite. They're allowed to stay with their
families.”

He held a hand out to Kasia, but
it fell to the bed, shaking. His whole body was shaking, hard
enough to make the bed tremble. He heard Kasia gasp, but couldn't
see past a gray shadow that covered his vision. He felt Shandari's
hands on his head, heard her mumbling a quick charm. He tried to
jerk away, to argue his case until they gave in. Time stretched
before him, a road he was forced to tread for all his future days,
as he had his past—alone.

When the grayness turned to black,
he sank into it with despairing welcome.

Chapter 23

Tina paused at the corner of Main
and Flower to tie her flopping shoelace, and to let Jake turn his
massive Dodge truck onto Main Street. He tapped his horn in
greeting as he passed her, then again a few seconds later. Tina
turned to see who was behind her and smacked into Damien Fontaine.
He grinned down at her.

“Out for a stroll?” she
asked.

“Heading home,” he said. “I could
be talked into dinner at Eddie's, though, if I found a beautiful
woman who wanted company. My treat.”

When the CDC released the town
from quarantine, Damien took a studio apartment, along with a
part-time job at the hardware store. He continued to help people
with tasks put off due to the illness: minor repairs, cleaning
gutters, or the ongoing soil reparation in gardens. Tina liked his
willingness to help, even if she wasn't ready to take on a new
relationship.

She lifted her arm to show him the
empty canvas bags she held. “I'm going grocery shopping. It's such
a gorgeous day, I wanted to walk. But I should get home before
dark.”

He nodded and placed a hand over
his heart. “I bow to your good sense, my dear woman. But my heart
aches from the absence of your company.”

“Oh, brother.” Tina laughed. “I
can't turn you away after that, can I?” His face brightened, and
she laughed again. “How about a counter offer? You help with my
groceries, and I'll cook you dinner at my place.”

He took her bags, holding them in
both hands. “Your servant, miss. I have a mean hand with the grill,
if I may offer assistance with the cooking.”

“It's still packed away for the
winter,” Tina said with some regret. “But I'll give you broiling
tips.”

Damien kept up his elegant patter
as they wandered through the store, and Tina found herself relaxing
as she laughed with him. It felt good to joke with someone again,
as if life were returning to normal. She felt a surge of gratitude
toward Damien, realizing that it seemed as if she'd known him for
years. In fact, she was pretty sure she had, although the specifics
were a bit hazy.

He kept her amused with stories of
his backpacking trips as they trundled down the hill to her house
in the deepening twilight. Her porch light had turned itself on,
and for a brief moment, she searched for a hulking wolf shape. The
porch stood empty, however, and she forgot about it.

They entered the house still
laughing, but Damien stopped just inside the door, staring toward
the kitchen. Tina followed his gaze, to see Beowulf standing
frozen, fur bristling in all directions, his eyes glittering with
wild terror as he stared at Damien. Tina froze herself, unnerved at
her cat's behavior.
What was wrong with him?

Before she could speak or move,
Beowulf crouched back, then without a sound, dashed for the stairs,
scaled them in two huge leaps, and disappeared into her bedroom.
Tina stared after him, mouth open.

Beside her, Damien shifted a foot,
and cleared his throat. “Doesn't like strangers, I take
it?”

Tina closed her mouth as she
offered a sheepish shrug. “He's usually fine with people. I don't
know what that was about.”

He tilted his head toward the
door. “Perhaps I should...”

“No, no. Don't be ridiculous.”
Tina pushed the door closed with her foot and stepped toward the
kitchen. “We'll let him sulk upstairs. If he wants his dinner,
he'll show up eventually.”

It took a few minutes to get back
into their convivial mood, but by the time the groceries were put
away, they were laughing again. Damien, who insisted his cooking
experience was limited to campfires, nevertheless proved capable of
broiling steaks, while Tina prepared a salad and nuked a couple of
potatoes.

“So what did you do before the big
backpacking trip?” she asked about halfway through dinner. “I feel
like I've known you forever, but I really don't know anything about
you. Where are you from originally?”

He paused in cutting his steak,
then rested the utensils on his plate as he looked up at her. His
eyes were intense, and for some reason, a shiver went through her
as she gazed at him. “Nowhere important,” he said. His voice was
low, a steady monotone. “Nothing about me is important, is it,
Tina?”

She stared into his eyes,
confused. A sense of calm settled in her. “No, it's not important,”
she said.

“You know me now,” he continued in
the same voice. “You trust me, don't you, Tina?”

“I trust you,” she said, still
calm. She felt a twitch in her mind, and blinked, breaking contact
with his gaze. “Of course, I trust you,” she said again. “You've
been so helpful since you came here. I'm glad you've decided to
stay in Green Roads. And I'd like to learn more about you. So we
can be friends.”

His brows lowered into a wrinkled
“V” as he reached for her hand. His thumb caressed her palm and she
lost herself in his eyes again. “We are friends, Tina. We are very
good friends. I'm glad we are. I'm going to take care of you and
your baby. Don't forget that. You trust me more than anyone else in
Green Roads. You depend on me, Tina. You'll dream about it,
tonight. About how much you trust me, and depend on me.”

“That will be a nice dream,” she
said, leaning toward him, concentrating on the thumb caressing her.
She stared into his eyes, blue and glittering, as he lifted her
hand to his lips. His kiss on her palm sent shivers through her,
and set up an aching pulse in her groin.

He smiled a soft smile, as if he
could feel that pulse, and rubbed his cheek against her palm. “It
will be a very nice dream,” he said. “I promise.”

~~

Damien left two hours later, after
a few lingering kisses by the door. Tina felt a vague
disappointment that he didn't try to do any more than that. This
wasn't the time to get involved with someone. She needed to make
sure that any new men in her life would love her son, and she
couldn't know that about Damien until she'd watched him with the
baby. Damien himself couldn't know how he would react until then.
Even with the best of intentions, some men just had a hard time
loving another man's children.

She locked the door after he left
and set about turning off the lights. When she got to the kitchen,
she paused at the sight of Beowulf's full bowl of food. The silly
cat had never come downstairs.

Concerned, she went up and flipped
on the light in her room. He always hid under her bed when upset.
She knelt down and peered into the darkness. He was shrunk into the
tiniest ball he was capable of getting into, tucked against the
wall, midway from either side of the bed. He didn't stir or make
any noise, but his eyes glittered in unblinking gold.

“Hey,” she said, keeping her voice
soft. “You all right in there?” He gave no response, so she lay on
her stomach and inched a gentle hand toward him. “Come see me,
baby. Let me pet you.”

He growled, a wild sound she'd
never heard from him before, and lashed out at her hand. He didn't
sheath his claws, but she felt his control as he hit her without
scratching much. She pulled back, sitting up and staring at the
darkness under her bed. Beowulf had never in his life done such a
thing. Rubbing her hand, she decided to try talking him out,
keeping her voice soft and conversational.

“I'm sorry you didn't like Damien.
I had no idea you'd react that way. He's a nice guy. I trust him,
so I hope you learn to trust him, too.” Her brow wrinkled as an
uneasy feeling went through her. “Except... I guess he is a little
strange. Maybe I should go slower in this. Just see him around
other people. I have to admit, there's something about him that
bothers me. But I never know what it is. And I always forget when
I'm with him.”

She went on, no longer talking to
Beowulf, trying to identify the elusive sensation worrying her. “I
do feel that I've known him forever. But he's only been here a
month or so. I think. I'm not even sure about that, anymore. He had
to be here when the quarantine happened, didn't he? He couldn't
have come into town in the middle of that, and I know for a fact he
was here for it. Why can't I remember?”

A jerk woke her up as her head
drooped. Peeking under the bed, she saw Beowulf was still a tight
ball of fur against the wall, so she sighed and said, “I'm going to
bed. Feel free to join me when you're ready.”

She slipped on pajamas and managed
to brush her teeth before falling into bed. Her dreams were very
nice, and they were about Damien.

Chapter 24

Damien paused a moment on Tina's
porch before setting off toward town. Weariness forced him to walk
with careful steps. It had been many years since he'd had to work
so hard to cast a spell. How did she continue to fight
him?

He needed to feed his power, but
not in town. Nor in the forest anywhere near Tina's house. Portal
Enforcement had set guards—he'd seen the dark shape of them
flittering through the streets, keeping particular watch over
Tina's property. So far, his ward had protected him. He'd been
wandering around right under their noses, and they paid no
attention at all. Even tonight, when he used more power, the guard
over Tina's roof had remained unaware.

But he was not confident about
feeding. There was no analog for it in this world, and he was
afraid they would notice. So he trudged past town and out to the
east—away from Tina's, and away from the portal, where Enforcement
officers scoured the forest and puzzled over his ward.

Later, deep in the forest, he sank
to his knees next to a raccoon frozen shivering in place by his
gaze. With slow, loving movements, the knife in his hand removed
the animal's skin, while its screeches gave voice to the power that
filled him.

In the morning, Tina found Beowulf
crouched by the kitchen door. He didn't look at her when she spoke
to him, and hissed when she tried to pick him up. She put fresh
food in his bowl and set it next to him, but he didn't take his
eyes from the door. She sighed. “I suppose you need to go out
pretty badly, since you didn't go last night.” When she opened the
door, he was gone in a flash of black fur, disappearing into the
trees at the edge of the forest.

She stared after him, hoping to
catch a glimpse of him, half expecting that he would come right
back for his food after doing his business. But after a minute, the
chill forced her back inside. He'd come by the office later if he
needed anything.

~~

Clive followed Kasia into the
hearing room at Portal Enforcement's Headquarters, Shandari on his
heels. The room was cold, the high ceiling pulling all the heat
upward. The gray walls and floor were bare, echoing back every
sound, as if to remind the miscreants who entered that they faced
serious consequences for their crimes. He'd been in this room many
times, always as the prosecuting officer. Back then he appreciated
the stark reminder, and the support it gave him.

Now he suppressed a shudder.
Shandari touched his arm in comfort as they turned to the long
table near the front of the room. They sat facing a longer table,
its five chairs empty. To their left, a table identical to theirs
was also empty. They were the first to arrive.

Not for long, though, as the door
opened a minute later and footsteps behind them announced the
arrival of the prosecutors. Kasia and Shandari returned their
greetings, but Clive kept his eyes on the table. These were Council
prosecutors, not Portal Enforcement, and he was relieved to realize
he didn't recognize their voices. What would it be like, to face
prosecution by one's colleagues?