Dave walked the distance to his home, with Spencer in his arms, as he never gave his real address, just his closest neighbor. It was a extra security measure just in case.
He arrived home within five minutes and was greeted by a relieved Liana.
"I was so worried," Liana told him softly as soon as he had stepped in the door.
"I know and I'm sorry," Dave answered just as softly. "Here let me put Spencer down on the couch where he can sleep more comfortably and then we can talk. We don't want to wake him, as he's absolutely exhausted."
Liana nodded and backed off as Dave tenderly carried the bundle in his arms to the couch in the den, where he laid him down gently taking a throw off the back and covering the boy with it.
Dave put a finger to his lips and then gestured for Liana to leave the room.
Liana did as ordered and Dave followed nearly immediately.
"So what happened?" Liana asked, as she peered into the den where the boy was curled up on the couch deeply asleep.
"Let's go into the kitchen," Dave said quietly. "Spencer needs to sleep, so we don't want to wake him."
The two walked to the kitchen in silence.
"It was the strangest thing," Dave began once Liana had placed a plate of food in front of him that she had kept warm. Dave took a bite hungrily and Liana watched, as he ate his plate of food in minutes. "I was walking home just like I always do on nice days. I had just closed up the shop and had gone several blocks when I saw this incredibly bright light coming out of alley. I also felt the magic which was very strong. It was certainly stronger than most magic I've felt, and there are not many magic users that are so strong as you know. It was at least comparable to you or me. I had to investigate since I was practically on top of it."
"You found Spencer just standing there probably looking around wondering what he was," Liana said, already guessing where this story was going, but then she knew Dave well, so it wasn't so surprising.
Dave nodded.
"You know I just couldn't leave a child to wander around in an environment he was in no way familiar with. He would've been taken by a procurer or somebody else that didn't have his best interest in mind."
"Of course not," Liana immediately agreed. "What do we do with him though."
"Take him in, just like I did Brigid," Dave said immediately. "I don't want to let the authorities know that there was a strange child that could create portals. Though I believe he did it unconsciously, the government, not to mention those with less then pure intentions would be very interested in him. I'm amazed that government officials didn't arrive in that spot in the alley as they're bound to have felt the power that was behind that portal. It wasn't anchored in anyway but then from what I can tell Spencer didn't even know he could create such a thing. He's a very logical and scientific young man and he suggested that he was drugged and kidnapped from his home in Las Vegas Nevada. He said that was the only way he could figure that he got all the way to Glasgow Scotland because he doesn't remember the journey."
"Well, I don't blame him for thinking that," Liana said with a twitch of her lips to show she was amused.
"No neither do I, especially since I suspect he's from another dimension, one that doesn't have supernaturals or any other kind of human with powers," Dave said.
"How do you know he's from another dimension?" Liana asked.
"Well, for one thing that portal had way more power behind it then it really needed to it was just crossing a continent," Dave explained. "Also, he claimed not to know anything about supernaturals and while he's a very intelligent lad, he's still a child, so I would be able to tell if he was lying. Now, I know he might just have been living in a mundane area one meant for humans, but even so, I can't see his mother at least not telling him that supernaturals were real. I only saw the portal briefly, but from what I saw it was a rainbow of colors and that means that there was a lot of power behind it and that it wasn't from this dimension. A normal portal is pure white, not all colors of the rainbow. The portal, even though I only saw it for a second was yellow, red and blue and purple and probably several other colors that I didn't get a chance to see before it closed."
Liana had seen this for herself so she nodded, as the portal to Dave's secret treasure trove always burst into various colors whenever somebody opened the portal. It wasn't really noticeable if you stepped through immediately after activating the opening, but if you stayed on the other side and studied it before it closed there was a lot of different colors that blended together harmoniously.
"It was the most amazing thing," Dave said. "Not the portal so much, but that it was done by a child who obviously hasn't been trained and likely did it unconsciously. In order to do something like that unconsciously he must have really wanted to escape, though from what I don't know, not for sure anyway."
"What do you suspect?" Liana asked, knowing her husband after over ten years of marriage.
"When I questioned him about his parents it was clear he loved his mother who is dead," Dave explained.
"But the father didn't get the same response," Liana guessed the way her husband's thoughts were going.
Dave nodded gravely. "I suspect he ran away, because of his father, once his mother's buffering presence was gone. I don't know for sure of course, but it's logical and also makes sense due to my vast experience with human nature."
"You could be wrong, but I don't believe you are," Liana said.
"We'll see," Dave said cautiously.
"I don't think you are totally wrong, as you've experienced this kind of thing to often before to be totally off the mark, though you could be partially, we'll just have to wait and see," Liana said.
"You're right, I have experienced that type of behavior before, as for the whole portal bit, done by a child no, that's a first for me and that's really saying something," Dave said.
"The poor boy must have been truly desperate to create that portal," Liana said compassionately.
"That's what I believe," Dave said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was running away from home. It's quite possible that he found out that not only did his father not care about him in the slightest, but that he was planning a way to get rid of him, one that wouldn't get him thrown in prison by the authorities."
"Or he might not have been able to put up with his disdain and hatred and decided to take a chance on the street," Liana suggested. "I know that the streets can be a very tough place, since I lived on them for years. I know very well I was lucky, even with my empathic gift to help, but he probably didn't and that's only if we're right. I was one of the lucky ones that wasn't killed outright or scooped up for some other nefarious purpose."
"Yeah, you were very lucky," Dave said, as he kissed Liana on the temple. "I've been grateful every day that nothing happened to you. There are so many dangers of living hand to mouth and not just because of the weather, but because of disease and other factors. Even being careful is no guarantee that you'll be able to survive in such an environment. Disease tends to go through places like that like wildfire and most of them can't afford to get immunizations against various diseases. You have to have a really hearty constitution with no decent roof over your head or a reliable food source, though I suppose there are the free clinics. You beat the odds and I'm glad you did, but so many don't and at least you were nearly a teenager when your mother was murdered, but Spencer's only seven. He might've beaten the odds since he's apparently a very intelligent lad, but still, I wouldn't want to risk it."
"I wouldn't want to risk it either. I had several years more maturity and physical growth before my mother was killed and if Spencer is seven he's awfully small for his age," Liana agreed, gravely. "We'll take the boy in just like you suggested and keep his existence very quiet."
"I know some people that can get all the proper paperwork. He'll be my nephew, whose parents were killed fairly recently, just in case anybody comes inquiring about him. I don't expect it or anything, but he still needs the proper paperwork. I was actually pretty amazed that nobody in authority showed up in that alley, because his portal was unanchored and the energy alone should have alerted someone," Dave said.
"Yeah, that is pretty unusual," Liana decided.
"I would've said unheard of," Dave chuckled, "but it's a bit of luck I certainly didn't expect. We weren't really in that alley long, but it wouldn't take long for somebody show up if they had a transport charm."
"If what you told me is accurate I believe you're right that he was probably running away from home. Some children runaway as a matter of course, but they come back in a few hours or their found and brought back home. Most of the time kids just let their emotions run away with them..."
"But what you're not saying is that sometimes running away is more serious and they intend to live on the street, thinking it'll be some kind of an adventure and to get away from parents that are either abusive or just make them do things they don't want to do," Liana said.
"Where they are either killed for one reason or another like the weather conditions, the goons that work for somebody powerful that are looking for someone or even several someone's to serve them. The ones that want to get you addicted to drugs so you'll do anything for your next fix and the ones that go after children for a lot of different purposes, none of them good," Dave listed. "I know I can come up with at least hundred more reasons if I thought about it, but why bother?"
"Yes, what you're listing is bad enough," Liana said shuddering. "I saw all that and more when I lived on the street, even though I was careful about who I ran into or those who I contacted that could sell my jewelry for a fee, since no one will listen to a kid, at least not those who are honest. Still, sometimes accidental encounters were unavoidable. People who are hiding from powerful figures, ones like Templar for example, from ones who have genuine problems of some kind whether medically or physiologically."
"Those to," Dave said quietly. "We don't have many bums here in the supernatural world, but it does happen unfortunately."
"No it's mostly humans who have that problem, but still, it happens anywhere," Liana said. "I think it's because we have a smaller population."
"We just aren't prone to that kind of thing, though we are still mostly human, so we do have some living in the street," Dave said. "Unfortunately, we're still prone to commit crimes of one type or another, just look at Templar."
"Don't remind me," Liana shuddered. "He made my entire teenage and my adult life up until recently, hell. Even if he couldn't find me due to the concealing charm I got when I was 20 didn't mean I didn't live in anxiety, fear and worry. An accidental encounter on the street with someone who could see past the glamour that the concealing charm put out for example. While a concealing charm is very useful it's not infallible if you encounter someone who can see past the light glamour, can fight the compulsion that wants anybody to forget about the person they just saw and talked to. I admit it's something of a rare talent to see past all kinds of glamour to find what is concealed, but it has been known to happen."
"Yes, it has," Dave agreed. "I understand your fear and I'm glad that didn't happen," Dave added, as he put a gentle hand around her wrist.
"So am I, because that kind of person if they worked for Templar for example would've told their boss and he would've began hunting me more aggressively. Really, he just had his people and anybody he could bribe looking for me, but I hid well enough. He wouldn't've known what city I had vanished to when I ran after my mother's murder. I think that's the one thing that kept me safe, as he likely thought I probably stayed in the same city where my mother had died, since he underestimated females so badly. Especially considering how young I was at the time. That's not to say that he didn't look other places, but I'm sure he believed that I stayed within a few miles."
"I'm certainly glad you were intelligent enough to avoid situations like that. Still, I know that things can change in an instant, just from an accidental encounter," Dave said.
"Which is why I was always very cautious," Liana agreed. "Maybe we had better go check on our guest."
"I'm sure he's still asleep as he was exhausted, but it wouldn't hurt to look in on him," Dave said.
"We need to put him in a bed," Liana said. "It's not like we don't have plenty of them since you bought such a big place."
"I wanted plenty of room for our grandkids," Dave smirked.
"We still have plenty of extra bedrooms, even with the two grandkids we got out of Brigid," Liana giggled. "You know that sounds so strange, here I am just over 40 years old and I have a couple of grandkids that only are little younger than our own and to top it off I got them from my best friend, almost sister, because I was the mate of her father."
"So we have a very strange family," Dave shrugged, even as he chuckled. "I think that just makes things rather interesting. No one cares what we do, so long as we're not harming or murdering people. Well, except for the occasional person that takes too much interest in our family usually for some nefarious purpose. You and Brigid are still best friends and will remain so throughout your lives, as just because you're her mother-in-law now doesn't mean that you can't be."
"Nobody has to know about our weird family tree except for us," Liana finally gave in and giggled.
"We are not the only ones to have a rather unusual family tree, love," Dave told Liana smiling.
"And we won't be the last either," Liana agreed.
The two of them rose to go check on their guest and when they peered in the door to the den they still found Spencer fast asleep.
~~~Dave and Liana~~~