Once I made it through ten road blocks, I was able to get a look at the humans congregating in front of us. Some stared, mouths gaping, while others started whispering as soon as I came into view. I could see how little ol’ me surrounded by the hulking men I kept company with might take a second to digest.
I didn’t have time for them to work things out, though. I had places to be, and the sooner I figured out if they would be helpful in figuring out where those places were, the sooner we could be on our way. I assumed they had places to visit and things to buy, so I hoped they’d be willing to help us out.
“I’m sorry we dropped in unannounced, and in the middle of the road. Usually we aim a little better. None of you are running away, so I assume you know who we are.”
It was kind of unnerving that those words could be true. Even with all my memories, I was still uncomfortable around large groups of people. Living over two decades as a shy person who was skittish around large groups of people had done a number on my personality.
“You’re the woman from the news, the one who turns into fire,” a man in the front of the group said.
“I like to think I turn into a phoenix, not just fire, but you’re right. I’m Avery, and if you’ve seen any of my conferences or television appearances, you know I don’t leave the house alone.”
“That may be, but you usually don’t have an army with you, unless you keep the weapons in a pile next to the stage.” A woman pressed her way through the crowd as she spoke.
No one in the group really stood out to me. They looked like a bunch of tourists who had bitten off more than they could chew when we’d appeared out of nowhere. Even with us splitting up, we still outnumbered them three to one.
“You’d be correct. We aren’t exactly here picking up some of the fine goods the local merchants have to offer. Are any of you locals? We need to know if anything unusual has happened around here today, or maybe even in the last few days.”
There was silence as the group glanced around, watching to see if anyone would step forward. I couldn’t blame them for being hesitant. I wasn’t the most intimidating person because of my size, but it was a little difficult to miss the multiple men around me who were around seven-feet tall and had muscles that grew their own little muscles.
It didn’t help that it had already been pointed out that they were armed. I could’ve mentioned that if any of them wanted to hurt the humans, they didn’t need the weapons, but I decided that would make things even worse. Hearing your head could easily be ripped from your shoulders didn’t get people talking.
“Look, I know we seem to be overrunning the town here, but we were led to believe someone has been here recently and left some kind of message for us. Now, while we may not be into messing around with and hurting humans, the group we’re after has no problem using whatever tactics they need to cause us problems, and in the past they have threatened the lives of humans.”
If I was smart, and had less scruples, I would’ve just started drifting around each of their minds to see if they knew anything. I’d done it before with humans I was investigating, but it was tedious when people weren’t always focused on the item you were looking for.
“You’re looking for the man who was at your wedding, aren’t you.” I darted my eyes to the left and focused on the blonde women who’d spoken.
“I don’t believe he’s personally been here, but yes, I’d like to find him and make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone.”
“I remember watching the wedding and wanting to throw things at the TV screen when he mentioned wanting to take your child. I’m a mother of four, and I can’t imagine what it was like for you to hear someone threatening your baby.”
The woman wore blue jeans and a purple cardigan set. Her arms were filled with shopping bags as she made her way over to the center of the group.
“It certainly made for an interesting reception. As much as I’m worried for my children, it’s everyone else’s kids I’m truly trying to protect. If the man from the wedding has his way, the world’s going to become a living hell, which I assume most people would like to avoid.”
I’d always thought directing the subject away from myself to how my troubles would change everyone else’s life was a good way to handle the unique-human dynamic. Humans were able to relate more if there was something that impacted their futures. As cool as it was to know that there were shapeshifters out there, our lives were kind of separate from theirs.
“What exactly is at stake?” a deep male voice asked. He wasn’t in front of the group, so it took me a second to pinpoint the rotund gentleman who didn’t look as enthralled as the rest of the group.
There always seemed to be one person who didn’t treat us like we were novelty items. I usually liked those people, as long as they weren’t plotting ways to kill me. Those people were wasting their time, and generally fools for thinking they had a chance to kill a unique.
“I don’t think we really have time to go through everything right now, do we?” Rick asked from behind my right shoulder.
I heard him, but I was busy studying the man who’d asked the question. I’d seen the look in his eyes quite a few times since we’d revealed who we were. It was pretty clear he fell into the bucket of idiots who liked to cause me problems.
“Are you a card-carrying member, or do you just share their beliefs?”
He looked a little surprised that I’d called him out, whether he knew what I was talking about or not. The fact that he hadn’t immediately ripped into me, I didn’t believe he’d made it to any meetings. I’d learned the first thing taught at the meetings was to start yelling as loudly as you could that I was an alien.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and if you ask me, you’re just trying to avoid answering my question.” The man shuffled a little to try to conceal himself behind the people in front of him.
“I suppose I’ll let that drop, but I recommend visiting our website before you join them. As far as the question about what will happen, an exact answer to is difficult because it’s a part of the future I haven’t seen. What I do know is that you would more than likely consider the individual we’re searching for a demon. What do you think will happen if he’s allowed to take control of your life?”
I was taking up precious time, but I’d never been able to have a debate with a follower of Humans Unite without them being escorted away. Even though the guy wasn’t hardcore, I still wanted to do what I could to change his mind about uniques.
I’d heard a few deep inhales when I’d mentioned seeing the future. I knew it was one of my abilities that had a bigger shock value, so it wasn’t one we really touted. It would take time for people to understand how it worked, and in the meantime we didn’t want people lining up at our door trying to get me to tell them what was going to happen.
“You’re a witch,” was all the man could come up with for an answer. From the sounds of it, he probably had attended at least one of the meetings.
“It isn’t something we tell people, but I prefer the title sorceress. It’s a little bit more accurate. Since no one has stepped up to tell us whether there’s been anything funny going on recently, I guess we’re going to need to move on. We need to check in with our friends who went off to search in other directions. Hopefully we’ll be out of your hair soon.”
I moved to turn around, but a flash caught my eye and I darted back around. It wasn’t the variety that came from a camera. It was just a little glint off a piece a metal in the sun, but the sense of déjà vu I felt made it worth my attention.
Nate noticed my focus and stopped me from taking a step. “Let someone else go grab it. I know you hate doing that, but if there’s a spell, we’ll need you to counteract it.”
I groaned, but nodded that he was right. We couldn’t deal with me disappearing mentally for a month, or longer, and as many times as I’d been knocked unconscious, I knew it was a likely possibility.
“I’m sure it’s nothing.” I wasn’t sure why anyone woul
d have hung a trinket from a tree. Focusing on it closer, it looked like it was tied around a leaf, which led me to believe it hadn’t been there long. As fragile as the leaf looked, I doubted the trinket would’ve still been there if a strong wind had blown through the area.
Mak was the one to move towards it. Since he was normal-sized compared to the humans, it was smart of him to go to ensure we didn’t find people scattering. He also could work his own magic to make sure touching the trinket didn’t cause an explosion.
“It’s a pocket watch,” Mak reported.
He was still a few feet away from it, and he wasn’t reporting anything I hadn’t been able to figure out from my vantage point. After I noticed it, it had started spinning in a slow circle, allowing me to get a better look at it.
“Can you tell if there are any booby traps? Usually by the time I’m that close something bad happens.”
“That’s because it’s always targeted for you. I don’t think there’s anything funny about this, other than the fact that there’s a pocket watch hanging from a tree,” he said as he snatched it from the branch a little above his head.
I waited for someone else to finally feel what I did when one of the doozies hit, but he flipped it around in his hands studying it. It was horrible that I was disappointed and that I hoped Mak had actually disarmed any spells before he touched it. I didn’t think he had, so it either was st to explode when I touched it, or for once it wasn’t a booby trap.
“Do you mind opening it up over there?” Nate asked.
It wasn’t like he was that far away, but my proximity to it when opened could’ve caused the explosion I was expecting. Figuring out someone else’s twisted ideas of magic was always difficult.
“Sure, but I’m telling you I feel nothing magical about it at all. I’m not sure who left it here, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the scavenger hunt.”
I could hear the soft click of him opening the watch, and his voice died down the second he got a look inside. He glanced over at me, and then back down. Nothing popped out at him, but the expression on his face told me something was up.
“Okay, I stand corrected about it not being tied to the queen, but I still contend it isn’t magical.”
He wasn’t hurrying to get back to us, so I shook off Nate’s touch and made my way over to the tree. It was a fluke I’d even seen the watch in the first place, and a part of me had been happy when Mak said it didn’t have anything to do with Malphas. I hadn’t totally believed him, but I’d hoped he was right.
Mak held it out so I could see what had caught his attention, and my annoyance threshold, which was usually easy to peg, vanished completely. I didn’t know how Malphas knew me well enough to know what would tick me off, but he seemed to succeed every time he tried. He had probably at some point taken lessons from my mother, because she’d previously been the person most likely to piss me off.
On the right side of the watch was a beautiful clock face that showed the gold-colored gears and gizmos moving underneath the surface as it kept the time. On the left side was a picture of a determined-looking me standing just outside a cornfield. A scene that had taken place that very day.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. There wasn’t anyone there to take that picture. I would’ve felt him.”
I sincerely hoped my words were true as I reached out and took the watch from Mak. I didn’t really want to touch it, but I needed to verify there wasn’t a doppelganger in play.
The metal warmed as my skin touched it. I was a little worried some delayed explosion was going to happen, but it only got to a comfortable heat level and maintained it.
The photo was centered on me, but I could see people behind me, even if their faces weren’t visible. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the picture was legit, even the best clone couldn’t copy the look on my face.
“Well, at least someone got your good side. We only saw the five warlocks in town, do you think there was more hanging out?” Rick asked as he caught a glimpse.
Our whole group didn’t move to get a look, but I did have a half dozen guys standing around trying to see what I was staring at. Without glancing back, I knew everyone else, uniques and the humans who were mostly too scared to move, were watching to see what I’d do next.
“No, he took this. It has the creep factor he exudes written all over it. Get in touch with the other groups and have them start looking around for things like this. He wasn’t physically here, and I don’t think anyone else from his side was. There’s got to be something else that will tell us where to go.”
The troops jumped to action while the humans did their best to stay out of the way. Nate grabbed the watch from me and closed it, so I stopped staring at myself. It was unlike me to do something like that, but there was something about the picture that drew me to it. Somehow it was the first of its kind to ever really capture what I felt inside, and that feeling was still brimming just beneath the surface of my skin.
CHAPTER 7
Mothers, every once in a while they have a good idea