Child, p.32
Child, page 32
part #6 of Sam and Sam Series
“We’re going to go find ourselves another table,” she said. “You guys have got a lot to talk about, and we don’t need to be here.”
She pulled Kelly up by his shirt as the angel protested.
“But it just got good. They’re all related.”
“Got that, kid,” she said as she dragged him out of the room. Simon waited.
“Damn,” Jason finally said. Ash looked at Samantha and she gave him a small smile.
“They’ve been working together for a long time. We’re all family, here.”
She’d guessed part of it, that Ash and David were cousins to the Elliotts. When she’d seen David, the family resemblance had been just strong enough, coupled with the fact that all four boys were taller than she was. She’d remembered how close Connie and Beatrice had been, how protective Connie had been, and it had clicked.
Simon, though.
That one she’d never seen coming.
“Damn,” Jason said again.
“I need you to tell me about my brother,” Simon replied.
“How did you get to be our Seeker?” Jason asked. Simon shrugged.
“I was just starting out when you were. I didn’t have a lot of training, but I didn’t need it, really. You were chasing myths, stuff that was usually just a rumor, and when it was real, it wasn’t that big a deal. I grew up with you.”
“But… did they know?” Sam asked. “Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”
“What, that I cared about whether you lived or died?” Simon asked. “No. They don’t let wives be Seekers for their husbands, but I wasn’t so wrapped up in your survival that I couldn’t reasonably manage risk, and you never knew who I was. There wasn’t any reason I couldn’t do it.”
Sam was overwhelmed. Samantha tried not to get in the way as he put the pieces of what had happened together in his head. Simon had been a really good friend to him for a lot of years, and he had never expected to meet him. He didn’t know how to react.
“I really need you to tell me what’s going on with Ash,” Simon said.
“He’s a child,” Samantha said, taking over. “Like, child is a term. I don’t know a lot about them, and there aren’t many primary sources I could reference to add to that knowledge.” She looked into Ash’s eyes. “You’re special. When I came to help you, that first day, and you said that God had made you the way you were, you were more right than I could have ever guessed. You’re so special that no one really knows what you are. No one can tell you what you are.”
“Demons killed my mom,” Simon said. She nodded, not looking away from Ash. He was struggling, but his eyes didn’t waver.
“And they’re looking for him,” Jason said. “We need to keep him with us until she figures out what’s going on. Better if you two come, too.”
“No,” Jenny said.
“Why not?” Sam asked. Ash blinked, still listening to a sequence of thoughts in his own mind. Samantha waited.
“Because David still has a Ranger to take care of. I have a job and a Ranger, myself. We aren’t supposed to meet and we aren’t supposed to be around you.”
“Things are kinda different, here, don’t you think?” Jason asked.
“We’re putting all of us in danger, telling you who we are.”
“The Seekers always show up to the stuff,” Jason said. “There were a bunch of them at the wedding.”
“Anonymity,” Jenny said. “We are always anonymous.”
“Jenny,” Simon said.
“No,” Jenny answered. “There are rules to keep everyone safe.”
“Why do they want me?” Ash asked.
“Because of your potential,” Samantha said. “And because of how rare children are. I doubt even they know what they would do with you. But when they figured out what you were, if they even know for sure, one of them, somewhere, got an idea that they wanted to… try things.”
“They can’t touch me,” Ash said.
“No, beloved. You’re right. But they can hurt you.”
“I’m strong enough.”
“I believe you.”
“What’s he talking about?” Simon asked.
“They’ve been doing that,” Sam said. “I don’t know what it’s about.”
“He needs to come with us, though. We agree on that?” Jason asked.
“What will you do with him?” Simon asked.
“Send him back to New York,” Sam said.
“Back?” Simon asked. “When was he in New York?”
“Yesterday,” Ash said. He was troubled, sad, but he sat straight. Samantha kept herself strong for as long as he did, holding him up as much as she could with just her posture and her focus.
“How were you in New York yesterday?” Simon asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Jason said. “Your brother can glitch.”
“What does that mean?”
“Blink,” Sam said.
“He what?”
The conversation went faster from there, blurring out as Samantha and Ash stayed still.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said. Samantha shivered. It wasn’t a cliché or wishful thinking. A tear welled up in one eye and he blinked, spilling it down his face. “I miss my mom.”
“Beloved,” Samantha said. She hugged him, and he held on to her like a rock in a current. The table fell silent.
“He’s coming with us, this trip,” Samantha said. “We should go, now.”
“Are we not going to eat?” Jenny asked.
Sam stood and took a few steps to the doorway of the room.
“Kara has all of the food,” he said. “It’s in boxes.”
“I have to decide, don’t I?” Simon asked. “Going with you or going home.”
“It’s not forever,” Samantha said. “Either way. But yes.”
“You’re sure you want to let them take him?” Jenny asked.
“What do you want, Ash?” Simon asked.
Ash sat up, wiping his face with his hand.
“I’m going with her.”
Simon sighed.
“We have to go home. At least for a few days. You guys promise to be online?”
“Of course,” Sam said. Simon sighed again, harder.
“I’m sorry, Ash.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Ash said again. Samantha thought she felt the foundations of the earth shake.
“I believe you,” she said quietly.
<><><>
Kara was leaning against the front of the Cruiser, hair catching the light from a warm sun.
“I just got a text from Merlin,” she said. Jason hitched his thumb back toward Sam and the rest of them.
“What about…?”
She shrugged.
“It’s been fun, Elliott.”
He nodded. She gave him the saucy sideways smile that very nearly dropped him on the pavement.
“Has been.”
“Should do it again, sometime,” she said carelessly.
“How are you getting where you’re going?” Jason asked.
“Merlin booked me a flight,” she said. “Just need you to drop me at the airport.”
“Can do that.”
“God, you’re gorgeous,” she said, putting a finger through his hair. He needed to trim that again.
“I’ll miss you, too,” he said. She winked and hopped off the bumper, kissing his cheek and going to sit in the passenger seat.
“That’s my seat,” Sam said.
“You two are the weirdest people I’ve ever known,” Samantha commented. Jason turned to find the two of them watching him.
“Your girlfriend’s got a crush on the kid,” he said to Sam, getting his keys out of his pocket.
“What?” Kelly asked.
“Wife,” Sam said.
“Do not,” Samantha said.
“Get in the car, angel,” Jason said dismissively to Kelly.
“Do not,” Samantha said again.
“Liar,” Sam said. She looked at him with exasperation.
“Seriously? You, too? In the middle of all the rest of this…”
Jason shrugged.
“He’s sixteen.”
Her mouth dropped open and she shook her head wordlessly for a moment.
“I know.”
Jason grinned.
“You’ve got the biggest crush on him, don’t you?”
“I…” She looked over her shoulder where Ash was getting in the car with Simon and Jenny, across the parking lot. “Okay, maybe I do. My sixteen year old self does.”
Sam grinned, covering his mouth with his hand.
“Stop acting like this is funny,” she growled.
“It is, Sweetheart,” Jason said. “I need to drop Kara at the airport. Meet you guys at the police station?”
Simon stopped his car next to them and rolled down his window.
“Jenny just called Detective Curtis. We’re meeting him at Matt and Connie’s house, instead. He thinks it will be easier for Ash to talk to him, there, than at the police station.”
Jason grimaced, then nodded.
“They’ll be right behind you. I’m a few minutes after that. Need to drop off Kara.”
Simon raised an eyebrow at him.
“I’d heard stories about the two of you.”
“They’re all true,” Jason said with a grin. “See you in a few.”
Simon nodded and rolled up his window. Samantha shot Jason what he supposed was a withering look and hurried to her Mustang - beautiful car for a beautiful woman - to follow Simon across town.
“So, you broke the barrier,” Kara said as he got into the Cruiser. “How does it feel?”
“Meeting our Seeker?” Jason asked. “I don’t know. It’s kind of like seeing an old friend for the first time in a really long time.”
“It’s unnatural,” Kara said. “Merlin isn’t a real person. I have it on good authority.”
“I hear you,” Jason said.
“How could he not be a real person?” Kelly asked.
“That’s not what she meant,” Jason said. Kelly made a confused noise, and Jason wondered why he hadn’t made the kid go with Sam and Samantha.
It was twenty minutes to the airport at Raleigh, and he dropped Kara off in front.
“What about all your stuff?” he asked.
“I’ll get it from you eventually,” she answered. “I’ve got backups in my car.”
He nodded. So did she.
“See you around, Elliott.”
“See you, babe.”
She winked and slammed the door, and Kelly appeared in the front seat.
“Don’t do that,” Jason said.
“What? Everyone else is gone. Why can’t I sit up front?”
“Because airports are the highest security places we go,” Jason said, leaning forward to watch Kara as she slung her bag over her shoulder and walked through the sliding doors. “They have video cameras around here.”
Kelly looked around suspiciously and Jason shook his head.
“Just making it worse, dude. Just stop.”
“How can you let her go?” Kelly asked. Kara went out of sight and Jason put the Cruiser back in drive.
“It’s what we do.”
Kelly looked back over his shoulder.
“Could be the last time you ever see her. It wasn’t a very good goodbye.”
“Just making it worse, dude,” Jason said, getting back on the interstate.
<><><>
Samantha sat in the car with Sam, looking at the front door. The driveway was full, between Simon’s beat up old sedan and the unmarked police car with all of its antennae and official plates. They were parked on the street, and Sam was hesitant. For all the distance he had gotten from Connie and Matt, he still hung on their approval, and the last time they’d been here had been hard on him. Samantha gave him his space, waiting with her hands on the steering wheel.
The truth was that she was itching to get into the house. She didn’t like Ash being out of her sight. Not until she got a handle on this. She needed to run tests. To get data. To understand. No one in history had documented a child carefully, and everything she had to work with was rumor and speculation, misdirection and outright lies. Some of them may have even been well-meaning lies. Children were fragile.
Faith.
It kept coming back to that fragile, fragile idea of faith.
In a world where proof was elusive and personal, faith was easy, muscular, irrevocable. People went to war for faith. Blindly, boldly, fearlessly. Often incorrectly, but that was the trick to faith.
You could be wrong.
When you butted up against real, solid proof, the kind no one even had the option to argue with, not delusion, not vision, not memory, but repeatable, testable proof, faith crumbled to dust. It was simple knowledge, and there was no power in knowledge.
Okay, she kind of hated herself for even thinking it. She was a shaman. She believed, believed in the power in knowledge.
But not like faith.
How would she even explain it to him? He could do anything, so far as she knew, so long as he didn’t know that he was doing it. What would happen if he understood too much?
She reacted strongly in the negative to that, as well. How could understanding, knowledge, possibly be a bad thing? She’d spent her entire life loathing ignorance, even as a young child. The things she didn’t know were the things that were going to hurt her. Not exclusively. Understanding a gun, chemistry, physics, philosophy, psychology, didn’t keep it from hurting her. But the things that she didn’t know were the things that were going to blindside her. Things that were going to happen before she could adapt, before she could react, before she could get a handle on it and manage it.
She needed to get a handle on it.
It was like electrons. She could tell you how fast they were going, or she could tell you where they were, but she couldn’t tell you both. As soon as she measured anything about him, she was likely to destroy any other knowledge she might have been able to get. And she might destroy him, at the same time.
Was that so bad?
Was it like popping a balloon? It lost its lovely, magical quality, but if you did it in a controlled way, carefully and with great kindness and care, you’d still end up with a balloon, just one that wasn’t very interesting any more.
One that demons didn’t want to run off with.
Annoyingly, they knew more than she did.
Demons always knew more than she did.
She hated that.
As she thought it, she realized it was true. Even more than time alone in a room with Ash, she wanted time alone in a room with one of the demons hunting him. Now there was a way to get information.
Corrupt, twisted, manipulative, one-sided information, but at least that was the kind of information she was used to dealing with, anyway.
The idea of trying to talk to Ash actually made her a bit anxious. She didn’t know what she was going to do.
But that didn’t stop her from itching to get inside.
It had been three, maybe four minutes. She needed to get inside.
Sam laughed.
“All right, all right. I’m ready.”
“Sorry,” she said.
“You were trying, I know,” he said. She ducked her head, and he leaned over to kiss her cheek.
“I love your passion,” he said. “Always have. Let’s go.”
She got out and, without thinking about it actively, went and got her backpack out of the trunk. It was an old habit, one that came and went now, but she didn’t fight it. More prepared was always better than less, even if the thing did weigh sixty-five pounds.
She’d weighed it.
Noticing, Sam offered to take the pack for her, and she let him. Years earlier, she had threatened Jason with a crutch for trying to take her backpack from her, but things were different now. Sam physically couldn’t run off with it, if she didn’t want him to, and - more importantly - Lahn was safely strapped to her back. Most days, she didn’t know how she had coped, when Lahn had lived in the back lining of the backpack.
Samantha didn’t knock, letting Sam through in front of her, and following him down the front hallway to the living room where the argument was growing more animated.
“I’m sorry, but that’s not okay with me,” Simon was saying.
“I know you think you’re doing what’s best for him, but what I’ve found is that kids rarely tell the truth when their families are around,” the stranger said. Samantha narrowed her eyes at him.
“What’s going on?”
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Friends of the family,” she said.
“Family,” Ash said. She gave him a quick smile, and his face lit up. “He wants to interview me on the front porch, alone.”
“And I said no,” Simon said.
“So did I,” Matt grunted. Samantha glanced at Sam’s uncle and gave him the most nuanced expression of gratitude she could manage without being patronizing or inserting herself where she wasn’t wanted. Being unwanted wasn’t going to change her being here, but she didn’t have to antagonize the man whose hospitality she was taxing.
She looked at the stranger.
“Detective Curtis,” she said. He nodded.
“I do need to know who you are,” he said. “Or else you can’t be here.”
She reacted on instinct.
“We’re the ones he went to for help,” she said evenly. “Eloi Anadidd’na Anu’dd. E’la o’na led’dd.”
My name is Hello Friend, and he has my promise of protection.
For his part, the demon reacted well, with discipline that surprised her. Led’dd, of all of the words in angeltongue, was a sore one for demons. For humans it was a promise. It was called the shepherd’s vow, and humans received it as sheep. Demons heard it as wolves. Directed specifically at them, it didn’t translate ‘you are mine’ so much as ‘I will get you’. She could feel him hear the words, absorb the power of them with comprehension. There was a tingle as Sam tried to translate them correctly, but the demon, yes, he understood. Oh, yes.
He kept his face still for a moment, turning to look at the room and evaluating his options. Samantha took a firm hold on time, bending it hard and starting the motion necessary to draw Lahn.
She wished Jason were here.
Simon, Jenny, Connie, Matt. Ash.
Simon was standing in between the demon and Ash, perfect defensive posture, but the demon could have gone through him like styrofoam. Jenny was in a direct line, as well. Matt and Connie were probably okay as long as Samantha got a grip on the situation quickly, but if the demon was clever, he’d go for them first. It would be unexpected and Samantha would spend her first energy, regardless of his opening play, securing Ash. He would not leave with Ash, and she was pretty sure he wouldn’t touch him. She thought she could make that happen.
