Chapter Three

Cal

We were nearing the end of the first hour of trying to coax the frightened kid out of my closet; how the stench of my dirty clothes didn't encourage him to roll out like he was on fire I didn't know. Instead he huddled into them, whimpering when Nik finally got a good hold on one skinny ankle to drag him out. The poor thing hissed and scratched like a cat being dragged to a bath, which was ultimately where we wanted to take him.

Niko tried to coo words of comfort to no avail, honestly he was doing a decent job and he probably had some practice from when I was a little kid. I just stood there with a sinking in my stomach and a tremor in my hand still holding my Glock. The kid was hardly intimidating, shivering like a Chihuahua on the floor, but I'd been surprised by the innocent looking before and I wasn't letting it happen again. "Nik..."

"Not now," he muttered to me and tried to reclaim his grip on the kid's ratty pants before he clamored back into the closet. After the boy swatted him and actually got the side of my brother's head with his tiny fist, Niko let go and leaned back on his legs. The boy dove for my laundry and practically buried himself under it. Just a little foot showed under the shuddering fabric.

Niko sat back on his ass with a defeated sigh. "You felt a gate?"

I did, but now I didn't know what to think. "Maybe it was the Auphe stork."

Niko took in a long-suffering breath and braced the back of his hand to his forehead. His palms and fingers were covered in blood. Of course so were my dirty clothes and some clean ones too. Good thing the majority of my wardrobe was black.

I pondered the catastrophic thought that he gated himself here for a moment. Was it possible for a child that looked no more than two years old to be able to rip open a void in space and walk through into my bedroom? Shit, I hoped not. But I had felt a gate, which meant either he traveled here or someone traveled him here and dropped him off for a play date. This concept made me both pause and feel sick to my stomach. "He's half." I knew it. Just like I knew there was something off with me even when I didn't remember my first name. Just like I knew how to run and shoot even without knowing the type of gun I was shooting. I knew he was like me. I knew he was half Auphe.

What the other half was another story. He looked human, so human it could be, but there were many other humanoid races out there and the Auphe were known for experimentation. Especially with the new young Auphe. They didn't know which lab tests worked and which didn't, or at least I doubted the Auphe kept histories or records in the vast gray of Tumulus. This kid could be anything and therefore he posed a bit of a threat. Only a bit of one. Auphe traits didn't really show up until later in life from my experience. Same with traveling. Even Cassie had said it takes a lot out of the young ones when they first gated. So if this kid had traveled here I wouldn't imagine he'd be conscious right now.

Niko stared at me in that way that was studying to see if I was being sarcastic. I wasn't and I told him so. "I'm not shitting you. He's half."

"Will you please stop cursing in front of the toddler," Niko grumbled. "And how do you know?"

I gave him an aggravated look. "My best guess? The tike doesn't have a big brother that would raise him to his best abilities like I did, so the bastar—er, mean, mean monsters drop him off here in capable hands so they can pick him up once he's ripe." Niko was continuing to stare at me in skepticism. "You already raised one half Auphe and kept him alive long enough for them to collect. You might have also stopped them and killed most of them, but considering the other babysitter options would either kill him or eat him..."

Niko's gray eyes flickered back toward the pile of clothing. Part of the kids head was peeking out, just one eye and part of his cheek, but he was watching us. He also wasn't trembling as badly as he'd been. Niko pushed back onto the toes of his feet, one hand braced to the carpet as he leaned toward the pile. He'd returned his sword back into the sheath between his shoulder blades almost as soon as he caught sight of the little boy, while his duster was draped over my bedpost. It left the weapon at easy access for a quick hand, but out of direct sight for the frightened infant. "Come on, kid. We're not going to hurt you. Just come on out and we'll get you cleaned up."

I listed a little closer, watching the shadowed eyes under my shirt from two days ago shift toward me. I noticed he hadn't uttered a word let alone a scream. I'd be screaming bloody murder if two weirdos with guns and swords were trying to wrench me out from under my bed. But he was quiet, save for a few soft whimpers. The blood was drying a little by now, enough that I could catch a whiff of his scent under my own week old stink that had taken up residence in my closet.

He didn't smell very unique, but not entirely human either. Fear, that sweet and tangy adrenaline sweat, dipped off of him in rivulets. And there was something else. Another savory scent, almost floral. I stepped closer, then grabbed Niko's hand when I noticed the same scent was coming from the blood on his hands. My heart nearly broke a rib when it started up full force and brought me to double over still holding onto his wrist and somehow remaining on my feet.

"Cal!"

Hawthorne. The blood smelled like Auphe and Hawthorne flower. Like Cassie. Like Cassie's blood. And suddenly I understood how the little kid got here. Cassie saved me from the hells of Tumulus. I never got a chance to ask her what had happened when we first met, but I knew she intended to kill my half Auphe ass and when she saw the humanity in my eyes she changed her mind. She opened a gate to get me out and whether I went through of my own accord or she shoved me through, I got home. I got back to Niko and just like she saved me she brought us another little lost lamb...covered in her blood.

"It's Cassie's blood," I bit out, trying to regulate my breathing. "She brought him here."

Niko stared at me for a long moment, mouth tight, the lines around his eyes thinning with strain. He could read my thoughts, or that's how it felt sometimes. He knew though. He knew without asking. Cassie found him in Tumulus, saw his humanity and gave him to us. To save him from them. And she gave her blood for it. I broke eye contact with my brother only when something struck my chest.

I went down like a ton of bricks. To my knees and then flat on my face. I groaned. Nik's hands were on my shoulders, squeezing, pulling me on my side. I vaguely heard his voice calling my name, saw the little kid crawl out of the laundry a ways peering at me, but the only thing that at the forefront of my conscious with sharp clarity was the burning agony that rocketed from my heart through every artery and vein in my body. I screamed and thrashed on the ground, grabbing onto Niko's arms and holding. Fuck did it hurt. It seriously felt like someone had injected my blood with kerosene then lit a match.

I could feel it. A fading heartbeat, slow, weak, then nothing. Like a last expelled breath. Gone. I fought the bile rising in the back of my throat, swallowing it down. When I was finally able to brace my hands to the carpet, I took in a few deep breaths with Nik watching me like a hawk circling its nest nervously. His gray eyes flickered to the little boy too, suspicious.

"Not him," I assured. I lifted one hand to clasp Nik's shoulder. "It's not him. It's Cassie."

"Cassie?" Niko echoed, then stopped before he asked the obvious. He knew what Castiella had done for me before she mercilessly left me, the connection she had made between us with a gate and our mixed blood. And now it was gone. That bond had been cut. Cassie was dead. And she had sent this child to us because she couldn't protect him anymore.

The infant had crawled out of the burrow of clothes, eyes on me with great curiosity and concern. He was so young; really couldn't have been more than a year or two. His limbs were still baby chubby as was his round little face. His eyes were big saucers, slate gray. I would assume his skin was as pallid as mine, but it was so smudged with blood that it looked ruddy like red clay. "He's just a baby."

"Barely two, probably closer to eighteen months," Niko agreed. We were both kneeling on the carpet. Nik with one foot tucked under him to bolt in any direction if need be. Now that we weren't coming at him the kid was scooting toward us. I extended one hand out, palm up like to a dog who needed to get your scent before it let you touch it. The little kit didn't seem insulted. On the contrary he mimicked my gesture and brushed pudgy sausage fingers to the calluses on my hands.

I was fighting tears I didn't want to admit were forming. No surprise since I nearly broke down when Cassie left me. I loved her, but I hated that she made me more vulnerable than a shaved puppy strapped belly up to a moving train. I hated that she made me feel like that warehouse from four years ago was still collapsing on me the moment I felt her heart stop beating. And I hated that it felt like I'd just gotten her back yesterday only to be murdered today.

"Hey, kid." I barely got the words through my tightened throat. I wrapped my fingers around his tiny hand. He didn't flinch, but stared unwavering into my eyes. "You're safe now," I wrinkled my nose at my lie and offered the tot a shrug. "For now."

"You want to try and get him in the bath, while I call Robin?"

"Robin?" I panned my gaze toward my brother, trying not to call attention to the kid getting onto his feet and toddling the rest of the way over to me. His free hand dropped to one of my knees, unbalanced. I almost smiled when his shaggy hair nearly covered his eyes completely. "If he sees this guy he's going to have a heart attack over just the hair."

Niko motioned to the kid's shaky legs and tilted his head. "Your diapers and crib didn't survive the trailer fire, so sufficed to say we'll need some more."

"Diapers," I repeated and dropped my head to one shoulder to see if the tike was wearing them. He was. I could see a white line of puffy elastic around the tear in the seat of his denim pants. Huh, didn't think you could get those in Tumulus.

"You might be right though, maybe I should call Promise." I was apt to agree, but let him figure it out. Not only did I not want Robin buying a gold-dipped crib, but I also didn't want to break the news that his best friend was dead quite yet. Promise had some experience with this raising a daughter of her own anyway. Of course that daughter became a crazy, over-ambitious, thief and kind of a murderer. Not sure if that had to do with nature or nurture but either or Promise couldn't do any more damage than me with this kid.

Niko stood up, still obviously in an internal debate with which of our 'many' friends to call about this crisis. He still managed to rise in a manner non-threatening enough that Scruffy didn't even let go of my hand. I waited until he left the room to turn my attention back to the kid. "Ready for that bath?"

He didn't reply, but just kept gazing at me with those round eyes. After a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to figure out how to pick up a toddler with my gun still holstered under my arm –and I wasn't giving that up with a gate having opened in my bedroom– I admitted defeat and tugged him along on his own two feet. He did surprisingly well with it. Kind of stomped like a Clydesdale colt, but he made it to the bathroom across the hall a lot quicker than it would have taken me to pick him up.

He didn't fuss when I closed the door. He just surveyed the room then turned to me to wait on my next action. It kinda reminded me of a less subtle version of Niko's exit and escape assessment when he walked into a room. "Clear?" I asked him. I swore he nodded minutely. "Well, let's get this over with." I was pretty certain he would start screaming and thrashing the moment I turned on the water.

Again he surprised me. Just watch inquisitively, not a peep. I knelt in font of him, pausing with hesitation at this point. The next rational act was to strip him of the rags on his back and his diaper and dump him into the bath. I felt a little more comfortable just skipping the first step, but I could see Nik's disappointed expression in my head and, honestly, blood-encrusted clothes were not pleasant against the skin, sopping wet or bone dry.

"Okay, Skippy, arms up." I gave him a brief example and he followed the direction without flaw. It was then I notice the screened writing on his shirt. It used to be a white shirt, stained red brown from Cassie's and the Auphe's blood, but I could still make out the fluffy image of a solid black teddy bear and underneath Caution: I bite.

I laughed, I couldn't help it. It was such a cute rendition of my usual less than subtle tee shirt slogans that I knew Cassie had dressed him. I wiped a tear from my eye, refusing to admit it was from something other than my laughing and peeled his shirt off. Same for his elastic-waist pants. I waited a moment for the diaper, preparing myself, then took in a deep breath and went for it. It wasn't as wet-poo horrifying as I feared it'd be. It was just a lot of pee. A lot of pee. I dropped it in the trash can and fixed my gaze on the round face staring back at me.

Though I didn't remember anything about those two years I was stuck in Tumulus as their little half-human toy, I knew I'd pissed myself more than once. Really, who wouldn't? And I was freakin' fourteen. This poor baby was barely walking and not even toilet trained and he had to face those malicious bastards. Those malicious bastards that killed Cassie...possibly in front of him.

I frowned when I saw a little four lined slash along the roundness of his shoulder. Claws. They'd been so close to him, which meant they were after him. If they had only wanted to attack Cassie she would have kept them far away from the kid. Her blood on him and those slashes meant she was shielding him. Stopping the Auphe from getting to him. No surprise. He was their Caliban mac two. Or mac three if you counted Cassie as the first, even if she couldn't be possessed by Darkling like they had wanted. And he was so fucking tiny. Tiny hands, tiny arms, tiny little pot-belly, and tiny...everything. "It'll grow with you, I promise." I gave him a playful smile, but he didn't react. He didn't seem to care. Eh, well if it didn't develop by the time he got to pre-teens, then he'd have to worry.

I shook my head. If I hadn't had Niko, this would have been me. Hell, I probably wouldn't have even made it this far. I would have died from malnutrition or dehydration at one week considering the care mommy dearest was prone to giving me. If I didn't have Niko I would have been taken by the Auphe much sooner. I would have been turned into something much more awful than what I was at my darkest moments. If I hadn't met Cassie I would have never made it back to my brother. And if my brother hadn't been there when I got back I wouldn't have survived a month. I would have never been sane again. I would never have smiled, or laughed, or got pissed, or got in a good fight, or fell in love.

And without us this tiny tot would be in the same position. Alone and well on his way to monster-hood. He would suffer the same pains, tortures, and vagrant disregard that Cassie and I suffered. Worse than what we'd suffered, far worse. Cassie would never want that. She brought him to me because she was dying and couldn't protect him anymore. She brought him to me so he could survive like we did.

"Cal," Niko sighed as he entered the bathroom. He slipped by the two of us to the tub to dip his fingers in the water. "He's shaking, the water's scalding, what are you doing?"

"I don't know what the hell I'm doing," I argued. "You're Suzy Homemaker here."

Niko snorted as he turned the dial and sloshed the water around to cool that which I had apparently set to boiling. He held a hand out to Scruffy, but the toddler gaze at it with apprehension. I nudged his skinny side to urge him to Nik and, after looking to me for confirmation of character, he conceded. Niko lifted him into the bath and, again, there was no crying or fussing. Scruffy just sat placid in the water as Niko scrubbed a wash cloth lightly over his blood-speckled skin.

"Who'd you call?"

"Promise," Niko replied. He gave a small smile as he ruffled a hand over the tike's mop. "Get some good food for this little guy, some clean diapers and clothes." His voice dropped from its lightened cajoling to a deep half whisper to me. "It was Grendels, wasn't it?"

The fact that he used our old nickname for the Auphe, before we knew what they were really called, was a small consideration to the kid who probably knew their true name better than most should. I almost snickered at the throwback. Grendels. Nik had called them that from the moment I joined him in knowing that something was creeping outside the kitchen window with glowing red eyes. One read through Beowolf in sixth grade and Mr. Genius decided Grendel was a more apt name than dark elf or big bad monster. I tried to read it when I was in eighth grade, my last grade in official school really, and got about four pages into the epic poem before I woke up with my cheek pressed to the pages and drool sticking them together.

"Yeah, it was Grendels." I stooped down beside my brother who sat straddling the lip of the tub. One black jean leg rolled up to his knee so the water didn't soak it. I crouched with one arm folded to the lip and my chin to the crook. Scruffy was focused on me; those slate gray eyes unyielding. "He has the Leandros eyes." I joked.

"Cal—"

"I don't want to talk about it, Nik."

"We don't have much choice. I know you're hurting, but this situation," he paused and inhaled through his long nose. He wasn't looking at me, which unnerved. "It means that she lied to you."

Lied to me? Cassie never lied to me. I might have claimed as much, screamed it at her in my dreams, but she never actually did. She never denied who she was, never promised to stay with me always. On the contrary, she specifically told me that if I was ever hurt because of her she would be out of my life. She read me the warning label; I just pretended it didn't exist. "What are you talking about?"

Niko's thin lips pressed together in a firm line. He leaned over my head to grab the cup holding my toothbrush and toothpaste. He dumped the contents into the sink and brought the empty cup under the water to wash it over the kid's head. Scruffy tilted his head back obediently, obviously he'd done this before. I narrowed my eyes. That meant Cassie had gotten him out of Tumulus before now, which explained the clothes and diapers, but then how long had she had him?

Niko cleared his throat, then stopped everything he was doing and just stared down at the toddler in the tub. Eventually, his wise gray eyes flickered over to me. "I don't know how to say this without you thinking I'm crazy or having a fit." I glared at him. He knew better than to start a sentence like that. There was no kid-gloving it with us, you either said it like it was or you shut up. "Cal, I think he might be yours."

"My what?" I asked stupidly, then the implication sunk in. I pulled back from the lip of the tub, eyes fixed on the bundle of joy and nerves that had now started entertaining himself with the cup Niko had left floating in the water. "It's impossible, Nik. She wouldn't lie about that." Fuck no, please fuck no. I could not have a son. I couldn't. It wasn't possible. I was so fucking careful about that! I shook my head again. "No, she didn't have eggs. Robin even confirmed she went to a healer. Isn't it all females are born with however many eggs they'll have or some shit like that?"

I cast a desperate look at my brother. "Isn't it?"

"For peris, yes, I'm not sure about Auphe—"

I launched to my feet. The kid jolted and stared up at me with round gray eyes. Fuck me, he had Cassie's round face and little button nose. He had my gray eyes and sloppy, dark hair. He was half Auphe. Half her, half me. I didn't realize I'd been backing up until my spine hit the bathroom threshold. "Cal—"

I ignored Nik and twisted out the door. I couldn't handle this right now. It wasn't true. It was impossible. Cassie promised and Robin confirmed. They both wouldn't lie. This wasn't some conspiracy to pop out another monster hybrid. Goodfellow was a lot of things, but he would never hurt me like this. He would never lie to me about something like this. Especially because Castiella had felt the same as me. No more Auphe, even half Auphe, was a better world. She was slaughtering them left and right, why would she purposefully bring one into the world?

"Aaaai!" I froze at the sound behind me. I'd only made it two steps into my bedroom. It came again. A desperate cry, a plea...for me. I closed my eyes, keeping my lips pressed together to stop myself from hyperventilating. As it was the air was rushing in and out of my nose in too-quick intervals. And another. I could hear little splashes and the squeak of flesh sliding across the bathtub bottom. Niko's voice was low and calm, trying to comfort the distraught child. "Daaa."

I spun back around despite my better judgment and stood in the doorway of the bathroom. Scruffy immediately sequestered, sagging in my brother's arms and sliding back into the water like a seal off a sunbathing rock. His wide slate eyes were still fixed on me and, of all things, he smiled in relief. And shit, he had my smile. Bowed lips that he probably got from Cassie, but my smile. A tiny, much cuter, much less sadistic version, but mine nonetheless.

"Nik, it isn't possible."

"It isn't," Niko murmured. He was splashed with a liberal amount of water now. Apparently the kid put up a damned good fight to get out of the tub and to me. I walked slowly back into the bathroom, gliding the toilet lid down and sitting with a thump. "Maybe I'm wrong, but regardless we need to keep calm for his sake. We know he's seen the Grendels and he may have been present when they...attacked Castiella. I'm sure he's more than a little frightened so let's not make it worse with rash or sudden actions."

He went back to washing the poor thing off. With more and more of his skin showing clean I could see he was just as pale as Cassie and I. Not that such was saying much. Other half Auphes I'd come across hadn't all been white as paper, but not every one had looked as human as us either. We were the lucky ones I guess. Marginally normal.

I watched Niko, then the kid. Back and forth. I needed a better name for him if he was going to be sticking around. Scruffy worked in my head, but damned if I was going to give my not-possible son a name reserved for a hydrant-pissing, ankle biting werewolf pup. The toddler kept an eye on me, even when he started playing with Niko. Ah, no, he wasn't playing. He was getting fed up with the bath. He swiped at Niko's placating hands and kicked water in his face, cute round face contorting into the scowl of a munchkin being denied overtime at the chocolate factory.

He still had suds in his hair, but Niko caught on to the temper tantrum about to burst through and motioned for a towel. I got his hair while Niko dried off the rest of his body; I was not ready for that step. I still felt vaguely like a creeper when him standing naked in front of me. Even without any shred of nefarious thoughts in my head, it still felt wrong and weird.

We clothed him in a makeshift diaper made of one of Niko's old tee shirts and one of mine to drape over him to just above his ankles. Niko wasn't pleased by the shirt, but honestly the message there, I don't have A.D.D. you just bore me, was among the tamer billboards I owned. And the little fucker was fast. Now that he felt comfortable enough to know we weren't a threat, he decided it was time to destroy as much of our property as possible.

First was the plate I'd left in my room after the first round of pizza the night before. I was riffling through my shirts to find a different one for him that was somewhat clean, not reeking of the bar, and didn't display one or more derogatory expletives. He was prancing around the room after Niko, who was trying to scrub off a little of the blood painted around my room. I didn't tell him to, but I think he was attempting to erase the thought of who the blood belonged too. If it was just her scent that engulfed the room I would have told him to stop, but the tang of blood kept making my stomach churn.

Evel Knievel found the plate under my bed, thank all things holy that was the item he chose since there were plenty of the sharp, shiny and pointy variety hiding under there that he could have gotten into. He jogged about with it in his hand, littering my floor with crumbs and bits of tomato, then dropped it. It didn't shatter since most of my floor, like my closet was carpeted by clothes. So he picked it up and dropped it with a little more force. I eyed him from over my shoulder. "Hey, Ace, careful with that." Ace, yeah, that was better than Scruffy. I could deal with Ace.

He looked at me in that feline way that said he knew exactly what he was doing, then lobbed it. He had decent aim; it hit the wall and finally gave way to about six pieces. Niko sighed as he turned from scrubbing the wall about a foot down from impact. "Here we go."

I don't know how he knew the hurricane was about to hit, but he knew. The toddler was out of my room in two seconds flat. A full grown half-Auphe who'd managed to out dodge a boggle and werewolves on more than one occasion and a human who'd spend the better part of his life honing every muscular and sensory part of his body to the point of being ninja stealthy and knife lethal were outrun by a two year old. I dashed out of the room on Niko's heels, just in time to watch the little guy climbing up the free standing punching bag.

"Shit," I hissed out and cringed as the thing toppled over it with our daredevil still clinging. I waited for the wail; the one that happened when a kid fell on their ass, weren't really hurt, but still wanted everyone within a five mile radius to know they fell. There was no scream, no low whine building to a wail, just a little tiny giggle. Niko leaned down to lift the little boy, but Ace slipped out of his grip and clamored over the punching bag to scampering across the converted warehouse into the kitchen. Bubbly laughter following him the entire way.

From there he managed to tear everything out of the lower cabinets in the kitchen, toss all the cushions off the couch, drag half my wardrobe through the apartment, and despite it all Nik and I were laughing by the time we'd caught him in the disarray of cushions in the middle of the living room. I dropped my head back on the floor, arms wrapped in a vice around Ace's wriggling body as he lied on my chest. Niko was leaned up against the empty couch, a hand to his forehead and the remnants of a laugh coming with his breath. I was near panting from the exertion of running after him. "Was I this bad?"

"And now you know the reason I never gave you sugar."

I smirked and ruffled the toddler's hair where it tickled my chin. "I can see why." Niko chuckled softly, then lifted himself up when there was a crisp, polite knock on our front door. Ace sprang up from my arms, crawling onto the cushion-less couch and stretching to peer over the back of it. His body language changed dramatically, ridged and still as he stared toward the door. I sat up and patted his back to comfort. I could smell Promise's perfume, a light lavender and honeysuckle, the moment Niko opened the door.

She had her driver with her, but he didn't even come into the apartment. Dropping off a few large paper bags over the threshold and bowing his head before disappearing around the door frame. Promise, clad in a hooded cloak the color of a winter's night, glided past the threshold. She dropped a kiss to Niko's lips that was somehow more intimate than the normal hello without the extra contact. "Now what is all of this for? Please reassure me that this isn't some convoluted way of telling me you're pregnant." She patted Niko's cheek and walked into the apartment, leaving the bags for him to pick up. She managed the implication without the usual haughtiness of an heiress. Hell, we'd asked her to make the trip to get all that shit.

I hoisted Captain Destructo onto my hip. I'd lost my gun and holster somewhere in the kitchen, so it was a lot easier to pick him up this time. Promise's eyes widened as she came farther into the apartment saw the state of it. Her lavender eyes fixed on me, then the little body in my arms. Her glossed lips parted. "Surprise!" I quipped with a half-feigned grin.

She did a slow half turn when Niko came up beside her. He offered her a twitch of a smile. "If I knew, I would explain."