Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (94 page)

“Why? She seems perfectly fit to me,” I
asked.

“Don’t know for certain, but whatever you did
when you fixed the hole fixed her, too,” he said. “Felix is going
to be ecstatic when he sees her. Thank you.”

“I really didn’t do anything,” I protested
lightly. “But we do need to go. Could you release this section for
a moment, please? Ferrin’s going with us so you can watch for him
leaving.”

“You are something else, kid,” he said,
smiling at me. He disappeared as the section of the ward pulled
away.

I grabbed Peter and Ferrin and jumped us back
to Dillon’s living room. Mercer was alone, looking out the picture
window with his hands clasped behind his back. Glancing around, I
could see Trelaine and Dillon’s auras, barely, through the wall in
Dillon’s office. The sergeant wasn’t in the apartment.

“Inspector,” I said to get his attention. He
turned rapidly, startled. “I apologize for taking so long. There
were a few things I needed to attend to before I could leave.”

“Um, quite all right, Mr. McClure,” he said.
I really didn’t want him scared to death of me, but I wasn’t going
to attempt to dissuade him at this point. He looked at Peter and
started squinting at him, like he did at me when we first met.

“Yes, this would be the man who was ‘no
longer with us’ and now he is,” I said, not bothering to introduce
them. Dillon rounded the corner into the living room almost at a
run. Much like Ian, he crashed into Peter. They didn’t hit any
furniture, but it was a near thing.

“Peter, thank God, I was so afraid he killed
you,” he whispered in Peter’s ear.

“What?” Peter asked through the hug, glaring
at me over Dillon’s shoulder. He pulled Dillon down the other
hallway slowly away from us. “Dillon, Seth would never hurt me, or
you, for that matter. It’s just not in him—he’s family to me.”

I put a sound baffle up at the beginning of
the hall, to give them privacy. That and frankly, Dillon thinking I
killed Peter really hurt my feelings.

“Give him a break,” Trelaine said from behind
me. “He’s never even seen magic before tonight. He’s handling it
amazingly well.” He passed in front of me and sat on one of the
small sofas. He now wore jeans and a tee shirt instead of the
distinctive leathers. Obviously, someone had brought him some
clothes because he was considerably larger than Dillon.

“And the two of you have, yet neither of you
is active,” I said.

“Active?” asked Mercer.

“Do magical acts.”

“No, I have the sight as my mother called
it,” said Trelaine. “But the rest of my family is blind or so they
say. And I can activate passive spells.”

“I suppose the same is true of me,” admitted
Mercer. “Except I’m not sure what you mean by ‘passive magic.’”

“You are a terrible liar, Mercer,” Ferrin
said. “Your sight a little muddled, is it? New in your position?
Haven’t talked to your mates much? What?”

“I don’t understand what you’re asking me,”
complained Mercer.

Ferrin chuckled at him, shaking his head.
“Obviously.”

“Here, Inspector,” I said, sitting down. “Let
me show you a little of what you aren’t seeing.” I motioned for him
to sit next to me. Once he had, I took his hand. He was
uncomfortable but willing. His consciousness was much like the
other men I’d pushed into tonight but a little more porous, if that
really made any sense. It was like magic was acceptable to him so
it sank in better. For whatever reason, I was able to meet with his
“mind’s eye” and I gently pulled it into me showing him the world
as I saw it.

“This is how I see the world, Inspector,” I
told him and looked at Ferrin. His aura was his normal blaze of
power near the base of his spine. His emotional center was a whirl
of contemptuous humor combined with worry and pride and twenty
other emotions common to all men.

“Mike, how many brothers and sisters do you
have?” I asked Ferrin.

“Four,” he said, lying. The lie showed in his
aura immediately.

“You see that, Inspector? He lied to us,” I
told him. “Mr. Trelaine, how many people died on the roof this
evening?”

“Eleven,” answered Trelaine. Guilt and
remorse flaired brightly through his aura. It was very close to the
effects of Ferrin’s lies, but not close enough.

“And Trelaine did not lie, but he was wrong,”
I said. I released Mercer’s hand, releasing his mind at the same
time. Trelaine was recounting the death toll in his head.

“Thirteen,” he adjusted his count
somberly.

“Not including the elf,” Ferrin said.

“So you can see how lying to a magician
doesn’t really help your cause,” I said.

“So if there are degrees of power and degrees
of sight, do you see better than he does,” Mercer asked me.

“Possibly, I don’t really know how he sees.
To tell you the truth, I’m just apprenticed,” I answered.

Ferrin leaned forward on the couch, grinning
wolfishly at the policeman. “And I’m a master and he still scares
the crap outta me!”

I glanced over my shoulder towards Dillon and
Peter. They were still talking in the kitchen. I didn’t want to
hurry them, but we really needed to find out what was going on with
the rest of the world. Or at least our one percent of it.

“Inspector, as informative as this bonding
experience is for you, we really need to find Bishop,” I said. “Do
you have any idea how we can go about that?”

“I’ll try,” he mumbled. “Why couldn’t I see
you then?” He thumbed several keys on his cell phone.

I shrugged. “I can’t see my own aura and you
were seeing through my eyes.”

“Can you do that?” Mercer asked Ferrin.

“No,” answered Ferrin, laughing. “Why do you
think I’m scared of him? I can’t see him. I believe ‘mannequin’ is
the word you gents have been using to describe yourselves. That’s
what they look like to everybody, ‘cept each other.”

“Yes, this is Inspector Gavin Mercer,” he
said into his cell phone, stepping closer to the elevators and away
from us. “I’ve found Seth McClure and we’re trying to locate Lord
Bishop. It’s rather important.”

“Um, Seth,” said Trelaine quietly. “Um, would
you mind… um, would you mind doing that for me? Please?” It
embarrassed him to ask and I couldn’t quite place why I felt bad
about that. I decided that growing up was just hard to figure
out.

“Certainly,” I said, walking over to where he
stood and touching his shoulder. There wasn’t much give to him,
being all hard muscle, especially as tense as he was. He was more
accepting to the contact than Mercer and his sight was deeper.
“You’re a lot closer to true sight than Mercer is,” I said,
bringing his mind’s eye into sync with mine. “See how close Mike’s
emotional map is barely different? But Mercer’s is.
Interesting.”

Peter and Dillon chose that moment to walk
back into the room and I glanced up. That was a big mistake.

“Fuck!” yelled Trelaine, jumping back and
wheeling his arms madly, taking me by surprise. I twisted sharply
back to the right, barely avoiding his massive right arm hitting me
in the side of the head. He scuttled backward till he crashed back
against the wall, still in shock from… something. I didn’t know
what to do, so I just stood there, staring at him, watching him
hyperventilate. He wasn’t hurt physically, I could see that, but he
was shocked and scared. Ferrin started laughing, though, and
pointing at Peter. He couldn’t sit up, he was laughing so hard.
Actually, that seemed to help Trelaine calm down.

“What happened?” Peter asked, rushing around
the couches with Dillon close behind him.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Apparently, Ferrin
does.” I shot him a dirty look, but that just made him laugh
harder. Mercer stepped further down the hallway, covering his free
ear.

“Well, what were you doing?” Peter demanded,
kneeling down to Trelaine, who was desperately trying to get away
from him. Peter held up his hands and backed off and Dillon moved
in, trying to calm him. He didn’t run from Dillon.

“He asked me to show him what my sight looked
like,” I said. “I did it for Mercer, to show him what an awful liar
he was and why we could tell so quickly. Mercer didn’t react this
way, though.”

“Yeah, but…” Ferrin started, but he kept
laughing and interrupting himself. “Peter… Peter…”

“Ohhhh… I get it. Peter wasn’t in the room
with Mercer,” I said. Peter looked at me, still not understanding.
“He was looking through my eyes, seeing how I saw. He saw your
aura.”

“Oh,” said Peter. “Is mine like yours?”

I shrugged as I moved over to Ferrin. “I
don’t know. I can’t see mine but you have grown,” I said and kicked
Ferrin in the leg. “Get up and help Dillon!”

He was still laughing when he rolled off the
couch and went over to Trelaine. With all that Trelaine had seen
tonight, I didn’t understand why seeing Peter’s aura had disturbed
him so much, but I didn’t know him. There could be something in his
past. But Ferrin was surprising me in more ways than one tonight.
There was still some laughter in his voice as he spoke with Dillon
and Trelaine quietly in the corner. I didn’t eavesdrop on that
either, though. Peter slumped onto the couch beside me.

“This has been an interesting day,” he
said.

“It’s not over yet. We still have to find
Kieran and Ethan. Find out what Bishop’s up to.”

“Why don’t you call Ethan through the
anchor?”

“Can’t travel through the anchor, but I’m
gonna do that if Mercer doesn’t come through. Maybe he can give me
a clear enough picture to form a portal.”

“Seth, I’ve been thinking,” he said, watching
Dillon and Ferrin work to get Trelaine out of the corner. “I’m
sorry about what I said earlier today. I barely understand what you
did for me, so it took me a while to understand what I was asking
you to do. It was reprehensible. With all that we can do, it just
never occurred to me that this could be wrong. We just needed
information and it was right there for the taking.”

“I get that, Peter, I do,” I said. “But a
man’s mind is the last bastion of the self a man has. If I invade
it then I’m saying that I am better than everyone in the world,
that my decisions are paramount, that I am God. I was afraid that I
did that with you and I do not want to ever do that again.”

“I know. So what happened after you gave me
the boot?” he asked, giving me a warm smile and a hug. Ferrin was
quietly giving Trelaine and Dillon quite a history lesson in the
corner. He was currently retelling our battle with the Princesses
at MacNamara’s. I didn’t know he’d seen it. I recounted the night’s
events to Peter in detail, including Ferrin’s unprecedented
performance. He was as impressed as I was. Mercer walked back into
the room still talking on his phone.

“Yes, sir, I’ll ask,” he said, shaking his
head, perplexed. He covered the mouthpiece of the phone and asked
us, “They’re asking for confirmation that you can fly in a
helicopter for forty-five minutes and a jet for an hour. I don’t
know why.”

“Tell them yes,” I answered, smiling
slightly.

“McClure says yes,” Mercer relayed into the
phone. He listened for a few minutes then said, “Yes, sir,” and
hung up. “They’re sending a helicopter for us. It’ll be here in
about fifteen minutes. Who the hell are you?”

“Huh?” I asked.

“I’m Peter, and you are?” Peter asked
facetiously.

“No, why are you three so important? They’re
sending an RAF helicopter for us and I have to go with you. Why?
Why are you so important? You’re just kids!”

A spell, a very small spell, flew across the
room and hit Mercer in the face, exploding with kinetic energy.
Judging from his reaction, it felt like a light slap in the
face.

“You want him to go all green and black
again?” asked Ferrin, standing behind the couch with Dillon and
Trelaine. They’d coaxed him out of the corner finally. He was much
calmer, but still scared.

“I’m sorry, Trelaine,” I said, quietly but
full of empathy. “I should have been more careful when we were
connected like that. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Are you like that?” he asked. “Are you that
strong?”

“I don’t know. You’d have to ask my brothers.
They’re the only ones who can see both of us,” I said.

“He’s a lot brighter,” said Peter with a
grin. “And a lot stronger. I’m the weakling of the bunch.”

“Peter!” I admonished him.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, looking at me.
“I know I can pull my own weight, but compared to the three of
you?”

“We need to get to the roof,” Mercer
interrupted. “How do we get up there?”

“I’ll take us in a moment,” I said standing.
“Trelaine, you’ll be all right?”

He nodded. “It was just a shock, is all. I’ll
be fine,” he rumbled out.

“I’ll try to find you if we’re in this area
in the near future, then. Thank you for what you’re doing.”

“No need to thank me,” he said. “Good luck to
you.”

“Dillon, again, I apologize for losing my
temper earlier and I look forward to meeting again under more
social circumstances. At least now you know I don’t murder my
friends just because I get mad.” I hoped I was cheerful enough to
not seem bitchy.

“You are just too nice,” he said. “Next time
you’re here, we’ll go to my mother’s, pass you off as my boyfriend
and get her off my back.”

Peter snickered. “It might be good practice
for your first girlfriend’s mom,” Peter said, doing that slow
motion guy-slug-the-arm thing. Dillon was already coming around
behind me when Peter turned to say something to him. He grabbed
Peter’s head and kissed him on the lips.

Mercer groaned, disgusted, and Ferrin
backhanded him in the shoulder. “What did you expect to see in
here, ya’ git!”

“Call me. Even when you don’t need anything,”
Dillon said and gave Peter another quick peck, then backed away,
running his hand down Peter’s chest. “Ooh, you’ve been working
out.”