"I told you, we're shifters. Immortal shifters. This is where you live if you're a freak like me," she snapped. "Mortals rarely come here, and if they do they don't stay. We don't have to explain ourselves."
"Community college?"
"We get bored. We have to do something. I sold real estate for a while and I tried to be an actress in Hollywood back in the thirties, but when people noticed I didn't age I had to come back here." She sighed and chewed on her lips. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-one."
"You're shitting me." Her eyes grew wide and she threw her hands up. "For real?"
"Yep."
"And you're gonna save the world?"
"Yep."
She paused for at least a minute, shrugged her shoulders and then smirked. "Well, all right then. Let's go."
I began to walk to my car with Lucy,
my sister
, close on my heels.
"Where are we going now?" she asked.
"To hang with some Fairies."
"Fairies are real?" she asked doubtfully.
"As real as shifters, Demons and Vampyres."
"Vampyres are real too?" She came to an abrupt halt and smacked herself in the forehead. Her blonde hair flew around her head like a halo.
"Dude." I grinned. "For being older than dirt, you sure don't know very much."
She nodded her head in agreement. "I gotta get out more," she muttered and pushed me toward the car. "Do Fairies bite?"
"No, not that I know of, but I hear they punch like a freight train."
"Cool."
I shook my head and laughed. Weird was weird, but my life was turning insane.
***
Carl and The Kev tangoed across the back yard dressed in brightly colored sequined dresses while Gemma painted Janet and Myrtle's fingernails. The baby Demons were thankfully back and they jumped around the fray, pummeling each other happily as they grunted out a bizarre rhythm for the tango. Just another normal day at my house.
"Which ones are the Fairies?" Lucy asked as she tried to take it all in.
"The one who looks like the Terminator in a gown and the gorgeous one doing the manicures. The rest are Demons, but you already knew about Myrtle."
"Is she really your cousin?"
"Nope, but I love her like family and I'll kill anyone who screws with her," I told Lucy as I pulled her into the circus.
"Krumecaca," The Kev yelled with delight as he dipped Carl. Carl squealed as he righted himself and slid slowly into the splits. "And look! You brought your sister!"
Everyone shrieked, froze and frantically examined their bodies.
"It's okay, guys," I reassured them. "I already knew. No one is turning to dust. . .yet." I eyed The Kev distrustfully. "You sure are a deadly fountain of info."
His grin was contagious and I looked down to hide my smile. Fairies were something else altogether.
"Can I tell you a little secret?" he asked.
"Will I live through it, big guy?" I shot back.
He threw back his head and laughed heartily. "If you added a few curses I would have mistaken you for Astrid."
"Astrid?" Lucy asked.
"My foul mouthed, kickass, take no prisoners, pregnant Vampyre cousin," I explained as I preened under The Kev's compliment.
"What the secret?" I asked.
He pulled me to the far corner of the massive yard and narrowed his eyes. He made me uncomfortable, but I knew he was a premeditated man. He wasn't about to tell me something I didn't need to know.
"The turning to dust thing. It's bullshit."
"What?" I shouted as the crowd in the distance winced. "You have got to be fucking kidding me. Why in the Hell. . .?"
"Shhhh." The Kev put his finger to his lips and winked. "If there was no need for the story it would not exist—would it?"
"Why are you telling me?" I snapped. My life would have been a whole Hell of a lot easier if everyone, good and bad, had been able to clue me in.
"How can we balance anything if there are no repercussions? Why should it be necessary to hold the future and destiny sacred? Why, little True Immortal? Why would that be important?"
I was still stuck on the fact that the dust story was false and that everyone believed it. Who even started it? The Fairies? The Kev stood quietly and waited for my answer. I knew it was a test—a huge one. However I also knew I would pass.
"Because I create my own destiny. Any one of us, no matter how powerful, could be controlled by someone or something else unless we let destiny play out in its own time. But how do you know I won't screw with people—change destiny now that I know the secret?"
The Kev squatted down until we were nose to nose. "Because you are Balance, Dixie. That is your job. All True Immortals have one: God is Good, Satan is Evil, Mother Nature is Emotion, your Grandfather is Wisdom, The Angel of Light is Life, The Angel of Death is Death, Astrid is Compassion and you are Balance."
"Holy Hell, The Kev, that was one overload of info, but you forgot someone. What is my mother?"
"What do you think your mother is?" he asked as he pulled me farther away and led me to a stone bench in a grove of flowering trees.
"A nightmare? A craptastic parent? How am I supposed to know what the Hell her job is? All I've ever heard is that she hasn't been doing it well."
"Sometimes people become incapable of what they are asked to do. What do you think of her?" he asked.
"Are you everywhere?" I asked. "How do you know I know who she is?"
He expelled a sigh. "My life is nothing like yours or any other Immortal you know," he said wearily. "Secrets cannot be hidden from me—dreams, wishes, desires. This is not a bonus. It is a burden. Until I found Gemma, my life was one of vast painful emptiness and very soon I will have to fight for her very existence."
"How is that fair?" I demanded. I barely knew the crazy man sitting in front of me, but he touched me deeply and I knew he was good.
"Be careful, child," he advised. "I am not all good nor am I all evil. I am a person who gets done what needs to be done. Do not elevate me or anyone to more than what they are."
I considered his words and I understood, but it still made me sad. "When the time comes to fight for her, I will be there if you need me."
He was taken aback by my words and pulled me into an embrace I never wanted to leave. He was beautiful, kind and fair. I knew for certain there was no such thing as good or evil in its purest sense, and the desire to attain it was impossible and wrong.
"I will remember your words, Balance. Your time draws near and the stakes are high. Your success will depend on looking at all sides with clear eyes."
"Um, since we both know the dust thingie isn't true. . .you wanna let loose with a little more?" I asked as innocently as I could without giggling.
"The dust
thingie
was created for a reason, little one. Just because you know we'll live through it, do you really want to know my version of the future when you still have the ability to change it—make it yours?"
Damn, I was so tempted I itched, but he was right.
"Is there anything else you can tell me without fucking with the future?"
"Astrid will be so proud of your mouth," he said as he contemplated my request. "The Balance of Chaos is not an abstract notion. It breathes and is temptation personified."
"Hmmm. A little vague, but more than I knew a few seconds ago, Fairy Man." I leaned in and kissed his cheek. "Are you gonna punch me like you punched Astrid?"
"Heavens no! I trained Carl over seventy-five years ago. His instruction is outstanding!"
"You trained Carl?" I was flabbergasted.
"I have trained many. Have a chat with your father or uncle sometime," he said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me back into my yard of warped reality. I shook my head in disbelief. Fairies were nuts and I liked them. A lot.
"You okay?" Myrtle asked as she offered snacks to our guests. I hoped like Hell she hadn't prepared them. She was a disaster in the kitchen.
"I'm good."
"Lucy's your sister?"
"Looking that way." I grinned and shrugged. "And Timmy your boyfriend is a wolf shifter?"
"Oh no," she whispered. "He's a bear shifter, and I can't even begin to tell you the things a bear can do with its tongue."
"Please don't," I begged as I made a quick escape. I'd thought all shifters were wolves. Don't
assume
. I found Lucy off on the side of the yard by herself.
"Do you want me to stay here?" Lucy asked, not making eye contact.
"Where have you been sleeping?" I asked, knowing she wasn't going home to her father anymore.
"My car," she answered.
"Then yes. You now live here. Period," I stated as a look of relief washed over her features. "Why didn't you stay with a Thing?"
"They're vultures."
"Yeah. And?"
"No, I mean they're seriously vultures. They shift to vultures, and when they're not at school they usually take their bird form and sleep in caves." She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"I can see how that wouldn't appeal," I muttered. "Why are you friends with vultures?"
"I got bored with the wolves and bears and lions. The vultures showed up about a year ago and they make good little followers." She laughed.
"You like having followers?"
"Breaks up the monotony," she said.
"I suppose. Do you remember the little girl named Dixie?" I asked.
"Kind of. I was climbing Mt. Everest for a couple of years back then."
"Years?"
"Yeah." She chuckled. "I could do it in a day, so I had to figure out ways not to freak all the mortal climbers out. It was a blast. I almost got hitched to a sherpa, but it would suck to outlive someone and there are just too many questions when they get older and you don't. It was colder than a witch’s tit, but beautiful. Oh my God, do witches exist? Wait, what the Hell did you ask me? I forgot."
"Do you remember little Dixie? And I have no clue if witches exist."
"They do and they're mean as snakes," The Kev yelled from across the yard as he examined the snack Myrtle had insisted he eat.
"Thanks," I yelled back.
"Damn, his hearing is good," Lucy said appreciatively.
"My question?" I reminded her.
"Right. I remember a little girl died and there was no body. I had no clue you were a Demon. I thought you were a shifter. I vaguely recall a ceremony and a marker placed in the cemetery."
"Eden has a cemetery?" I asked with an excitement that made me tingle.
She looked at me strangely and then her eyes lit up. "It's not in Eden proper, it's outside. Immortals don't often have much use for cemeteries."
"It's outside of neutral territory?" This could be risky.
"Yeah." She nodded as she pondered the pros and cons of us visiting territory without safeguards. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "You wanna go?"
"I believe we might find what we're searching for if we do."
"I think you might be right."
"I'm going to transport us," I told her. "It will be faster."
"Is that safe?" she asked as she chewed her lips in distress. "I do recall hearing when I was shifted that you tend to end up places you didn't mean to."
"Yep, I do. You with me?" I grinned and held out my hand—to my sister.
Her own smile matched my grin and she put her hand in mine. "You're crazy, but I'm crazier. Let's go."
Chapter 31
"Is this the right place?" I whispered as I glanced around at the decrepit headstones and overgrown weeds. Early twilight in a graveyard was freaky—even for a Demon.
"This is it. I told you Immortals don't have much use for cemeteries."
"Are there mortals buried here?" I asked as I stepped over the decapitated stone head of an Angel statue.
"No clue. Doesn't smell mortal, but I haven't sniffed a lot of dead ones. Do you think she's here?"
I closed my eyes and quietly chanted. I let my magic fly away from me a bit as I searched for my mother.
"What are you chanting?" Lucy asked as she involuntarily shivered.
"Some dead language," I muttered.
"Do you even know what the Hell you're saying?" she asked, aghast.
"Do you want me to lie?"
She put her head in her hands and tried not to laugh. "Yes."
"Oookay, then I know exactly what I'm saying and exactly what I'm doing and little monkeys are going to fly out of your ass in twelve seconds."
"You suck," she moaned and checked her backside for primates.
"You looked." I laughed and then froze. "She's here."
Carefully and silently we made our way across the graveyard. The last of the setting sun cast an eerie orange and red glow on the crumbling stone tombs. Our mother sat on a bench next to a large headstone labeled
Dixie
and wept. Rhonda stood beside her. Tendrils of colorful smoke wafted from Rhonda's nose and her eyes glowed purple.
"What in the Hell is Rhonda?"
"If I had to guess I'd say dragon shifter," Lucy whispered unhappily. "I've never seen one before. Most shifters don't believe they exist. They're supposed to be seriously deadly."
"Awesome. Hi Mom," I yelled across the cement jungle. "You forgot to say bye. Again."
"Let her be," Rhonda growled. "She is in pain."
"Like I've been in pain, stuck with my bastard father for thousands of years?" Lucy spat.
"You don't understand," Rhonda insisted and put loving arms around Eve. "I told you to leave. I don't want to have to make you do it," she threatened.
"You can't," I said.
"Do you want to try me?" she asked ominously.
"Do you want to
try
me is the question you should consider," I countered. A very brief flicker of fear shot across Rhonda's face, but I saw it and I smiled. "We aren't here for a bogus family reunion. You already had that with us over the last few weeks. We're here for answers, Mom."
"It's all right, Rhonda. I owe them as much."
Lucy growled and I put my hand on her arm. As much as I hated the woman on the bench, my impulse was to go and comfort her. Was I so desperate for her love and acceptance that I'd become pathetic?