"Mr. Fitzgerald," Sam began as she led Victor to an interview room.
"Assistant Director Fitzgerald to you, Agent Spade," Victor growled.
"Do you think I care?" Sam glared right in his face. "A kidnapping victim places you at the scene of his delivery from his kidnappers and stated that you paid money to the man who placed a death curse on him. That is an automatic sentence of life without possibility of parole if you didn't know about the death curse, or an automatic death sentence if a jury finds you guilty of hiring it done. Sit here while I get what I need to take your statement and I'll have your wife call your lawyer." She left him in the chair.
Sam found Mrs. Fitzgerald in one of the nicer 'witness' rooms with Viv. "Mrs. Fitzgerald, we discovered that your son was kidnapped and illegally adopted. I'm afraid that this is a very serious case because it does involve someone placing a death curse on Vin Tanner before he came to live with you as your son. Because Vin remembers seeing your husband pay the man who cursed him we have to consider him an accessory to attempted murder by magic. That carries an automatic life in prison sentence. You need to call his lawyer right now." Viv tried her best to be gentle with the woman. As far as they knew she wasn't involved with anything more than wanting another child.
"But how could Martin remember anything of his adoption? He was less than a week old when Victor brought him home. I know that Victor paid the lawyer on the day he brought Martin home, but he wouldn't pay for a death curse on his own son," Gloria protested.
"Vin is under a reincarnation curse. He remembers basically everything from the day he is born until the day he dies and continues to remember into the next life," Viv explained. "It was that curse that kept him alive for so long. He was able to draw strength from the others who are connected to him through the same curse. If your husband didn't know about either the kidnapping, that the adoption was illegal or about the death curse he'll get off with a much lighter sentence."
"I guess I'd better call a lawyer then," Gloria said in a daze.
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Jack and Danny were almost happy to be stuck back in coach while Vin and Ezra were in first class. At least they could talk without being overheard. "So this Ezra Standish, a multi millionaire, is one of the men who are under the same reincarnation curse Vin is?" Danny asked, trying to understand the strange scene back at the office.
"It's more than that. Do you remember what he said at the hospital? One of them is a Two Blood. He said that they had formed a pack around him. I didn't believe him, but from the way those two behaved, Vin was telling the truth."
"What do you mean?" Danny asked.
"You don't know much about Two Bloods, do you?" Jack asked with a smirk.
"Only the standard stuff, they are shape shifters who can change from wolf to man or vice versa whenever they want. It isn't a curse or a spell; it is part of their genetic makeup. Most of them consider themselves to be more wolf than human. They live in packs that are usually extended families. Packs are dictatorships with leadership and status being determined by personal combat." Danny recited, rather like the lecturer he had heard on the subject at Quantico.
"That's all true. What is also true is that they can breed with humans and so occasionally a human will be adopted into a pack. There are all sorts of rules and stuff, but it basically boils down to the fact that after a while other than the change, you can't tell the difference between a Two Blood pack member and a One Blood pack member. They completely become part of the pack. There is no separation. That is what was going on at the office. Mr. Standish was acting exactly like a One Blood pack member greeting another member of his pack. The way he was playing with Vin's hair? That was how they greet other members of their pack that are in wolf form, by scratching around the ears and the scruff of their necks."
"Just like you would a dog," Danny said.
"Yes, but don't ever make that comparison. It is a deadly insult. Another thing is that pack leaders are literally alpha males. Think of them as the meanest, deadliest person you will ever come across and the loyalty of their pack is to them and no one else. So Vin will be more loyal to his pack leader and to his pack as a whole than he will to anyone or anything else. I think that is why he was so angry at his adopted father. Fitzgerald took him away from his pack. People have been killed for less." Jack finished solemnly.
"And gotten away with it," Danny added. He knew that much about how the law dealt with pupnappings. If you were stupid enough to kidnap a Two Blood pup, you got what you deserved.