Second Nature (8 page)

“As a Librarian, I am a little more than
human. I still am human, or at least that’s how I read on all of
your radars so I
assume
I’m human. But that has no bearing
on your question, sorry. Librarians have an inborn ability to track
Otherworlders. With a name and race, I can pinpoint the location of
any Otherworlder in North Carolina to a ten-block radius. Your
sister drove up and down those ten blocks, honking her horn and
screaming Dylan’s name out of her car window.”

My lips twitched as I imagined the neighbors
bellowing and coming onto their front porches to check out the
ruckus. Poor Dylan.

“I don’t understand why he seemed a little
surly with me at first,” Sariah said with a look too innocent to be
genuine.

I wanted to laugh, but there were problems
we needed to deal with first. “What about Xander? Is he going to be
okay?”

Sariah grimaced, and I understood that was
what she had been puzzling out when I came into the room. “I don’t
know what they gave him, but I think he just needs energy. It took
him so long to come around last night. I thought I’d lost you
both.”

I put my arm around her shoulders as tears
made her eyes shine. “Will just getting him energy revive him?”

“I think so. He’s progressed to the point
that he no longer gets anything other than enjoyment from
food.”

“Is he strong enough to go anywhere?”

Sariah shrugged, the corners of her mouth
pulling down a little. I peeked into the living room, where my
brother was now awake but vacant. There was no way anyone could
look at him like this and think he was human. His skin was almost
grey and had the rough texture of stone. His eyes were pure blue
flames—something I had always thought was a sign of anger. Maybe it
was something he constantly struggled to repress and only forgot it
in anger? Shaking off the thought for later, I tried to focus on
the problem at hand.

We had no choice but to bring some humans to
him. But how? We didn’t really know anyone here, so it wasn’t like
we could call someone over. My gaze fell to a flier laying on the
counter—the latest attempt of the Greensboro Garden Society to get
access to our house, under a thinly veiled pretense of recruiting
us into the society. I could only grin as the thought occurred to
me. “Do nosey old busy bodies work?” I asked with mischief in my
eyes.

Sariah gave me a startled look, and Russell
laughed. I pointed to the flier and grabbed the phone off the
counter. An impatient woman answered after the third ring, and I
explained that I was interested in joining and would like more
information. “Would the heads of the club be willing to join me for
tea to discuss this further?” The woman stumbled over herself with
eagerness to get access to the mysterious new residents who threw
money around like it was paper.

We shooed Russell out since we had a lot to
do to get ready. Sariah went to work straightening up the living
room, ridding it of bloodstains and broken glass while I got
cleaned up. I barely had enough time to change into a simple cotton
dress with a fitted bodice and fuller skirt and sweep my hair up
into an acceptable chignon before the doorbell rang. I swept down
the stairs amazed to see the window intact and the blood stains
gone. Sariah morphed into a perfect Southern lady in an immaculate
white suit and a large hat. She had made herself look like Mom, and
it made me miss her for a brief moment.

I opened the door and tried to repress my
shock at no less than a dozen older ladies in dresses and suits
shouldering each other for position on the front porch. I smiled
and stepped aside, gesturing with my hand into the living room.
“Please, won’t you come in?” I said in my most gracious voice.

They streamed in, glancing around and trying
to take in all the details. I tried to prevent my eyes from
twitching to the closet door, cracked open to give my brother a
little bit of a view. Sariah set a tray with a teapot and cups I
didn’t recognize on the coffee table and invited the ladies to sit.
They clucked and fussed as they perched on the edge of their seats.
One or two of them shuddered as they delicately sipped their tea.
When Xander fed off someone’s energy, it gave them a general
creeped out feeling. I hoped this would kill two birds with one
stone, save my brother and make the high society of Greensboro stay
as far away from us as possible.

I spent the longest hour of my life sipping
tea and discussing fashion, decorating and other frivolous things
that didn’t matter to me. My head hurt with the effort of not
rolling my eyes. Were they for real? Could anyone truly be so empty
headed? By the time I ran out of questions, the ladies were
fidgeting and looking around as if they expected a serial killer to
pop out of nowhere at them. I smiled and tried to look innocent,
just barely repressing my laughter. I think the end result was a
sinister smile that had the women making hasty apologies. They all
but ran to the door, leaving it standing open as they bustled into
the line of Mercedes, BMW’s and Lincoln Town cars in the driveway.
As I closed the door laughing, my eyes swept the room. The
abandoned teacups were the plain white coffee cups on salad plates,
and the delicate teapot was actually the coffee pot. I looked back
at the door and there was piece of plywood duct taped where the
glass had been. I guess I should have been grateful the blood was
actually gone.

I was distracted from my line of thought as
Xander stepped out of the closet looking as healthy as ever. I ran
across the room and flung myself into his arm, followed less than a
second later by Sariah.

“God you scared us!” I cried.

“Not as tough as you thought, huh?” Sariah
couldn’t keep a smile off her face. It faded as she pulled back to
study his face. “What happened?”

“I met this smoking hot chick at the mall,
and we spent the day hanging out.” I rolled my eyes. Why wasn’t I
surprised the story of how my brother got himself into so much
trouble started with a pretty girl? “I would have sworn she was
human, but at dinner I suddenly couldn’t move or do anything to
stop her. She grabbed my arm and stuck a needle in it. Just like
that, I was cold. I was pretty out of it as she told the waiter
some lie about me not holding my liquor and took me out to my car.”
He shrugged, spreading his hands helplessly. “The next thing I
remember is waking up here.”

“Is there something that could affect a
Djinn like that? A drug of some sort?” I asked, looking between my
siblings. They looked as bewildered as I felt. “What could she be
that would seem human, but isn’t?” The words so similarly echoed
Russell’s from earlier. “She's a Librarian?”

Sariah’s eyes were wide, but Xander frowned
at me. “How do you know about Librarians?”

“Oh, I know stuff.” I nodded my head with an
innocent look and laughed as his eyes narrowed at me. “Sariah
introduced me to Russell.”

Xander nodded knowingly, then grinned at
Sariah. “I wondered when you two would make it out of the library.
I saw you playing footsie under the table.”

Sariah blushed and glanced down, but she was
smiling. I wondered how serious things were between her and the
Librarian.

“So how many Librarians are there?” I
asked.

Xander shrugged. “No one knows, but they’re
the hereditary keepers of The Libraries. In the past, they were
neutral, but as things heated up between the classes, some began to
take sides. Now they have evolved into something else entirely.
Something dangerous, it would seem.”

I blinked at his words, fear leaving an icy
path down my spine. I wouldn’t be able to be a casual observer in
the war that pitted Otherworlders against each other. There had to
be a way to end the hatred and prejudice. But how was I, a lone
Gaia less than two years past her Change, going to do anything
about it?

I HOPED A good night’s sleep would bring
answers, but it didn’t. There were too many problems, and I was
still stuck without a single solution. I didn’t even know where to
begin looking for answers. I threw myself into the routine of my
life, but even the comfort of the familiar felt hollow.

Nate sent me some texts, which I deleted
without even opening. I was beyond furious with him. Until I could
hear his name without waves of anger threatening to sweep me away,
I wanted nothing to do with him. His words in the park had struck a
resonating chord with me. I tried not to dwell on the hate that
poured out of him, but I had to wonder if he’d had a point. I had
been devastated by my parents’ deaths. But I didn’t think I was
ever looking for sympathy—just a way to keep myself from falling
apart.

I talked Dylan into letting me make him
lunch to say thank you for saving my life. I apologized for my
sister’s unorthodox method of finding him, but he only grinned and
shrugged.

“Hey, a hot blond driving down my block
screaming my name in the middle of the night isn’t exactly the
worst thing that could happen.” His grey-green eyes sparkled as he
looked at me. “Though I prefer redheads.”

I blushed and tucked a red-blond strand of
hair behind my ear. I could never decide if Dylan was hitting on me
or just a natural flirt. It’s not that I wasn’t flattered to have
his interest. But it still was a betrayal to Nate in my mind, no
matter how angry I was with him I couldn’t move on. Since I was
ignoring him, he had called Xander to check up on me. The two of
them seemed to be getting along better.

Dylan cleared his throat, breaking the
awkward silence. “My neighbor thinks I got serious game and asked
me for lessons. I told him it was a gift. You’re either born with
it or you aren’t.” We laughed as the remainder of the meal
descended into pure silliness, the kind with lots of laughter and
no uncomfortable silence.

That was the thing with Dylan. I was always
at ease around him. He could make me laugh no matter how bad my day
was. Whenever he was around, all my troubles seemed to melt away
and be insignificant. Even though I suspected his angel powers were
responsible, I was okay with it. As far as Otherworlders using
their abilities on me, this one seemed the least offensive.

A week went by, and it was Friday. The
afternoon was slow at the nursery, so I had abandoned the hot
flowerbeds for the cool air conditioning of the garden shop. Gladys
sat in a beat up lawn chair while I perched precariously on a
wobbly concrete statue. There was still about fifteen minutes left
of my shift, and Xander hadn’t pulled up yet. My coworker acted
like one of those pervy old ladies, who’s always checking out guys
young enough to be her grandchildren. Her stories were often so
inappropriate they curled my toes. She was sweet, though, and the
closest thing to a friend I had. Her white hair had very little
grey left in it and was usually pinned back with a variety of
sparkling barrettes. Her glasses hung around her neck on a beaded
chain, and she wore a ring on almost every finger. She was raving
about some celebrity’s buns, and I was only half paying attention
when a sudden subject change brought me screeching back into the
conversation.

“Did you hear about the girl in Tennessee?
Shot between the eyes during some sort of witchcraft ritual.” She
fanned herself with one of our informational leaflets as she shook
her head.

I went cold and my body stiffened. I was
afraid to ask where in Tennessee, but I had to. My family had lived
in Memphis briefly after fleeing our home. I stuttered a little as
I forced out the words. “Wh- What part of Ten- Tennessee?” I tried
to be offhand, but Gladys’s white eyebrows shot up, and she sat a
little straighter in her chair.

“Do you know someone in Tennessee, dearie?”
I nodded, taking the easy out. I hated lying, but I didn’t want her
connecting the story with me any more than necessary. She stretched
out to pat my knee and gave me a smile. “I can’t imagine it’s
anyone you know. I think it was in Nashville.” Just as I was about
to breathe a sigh of relief, she corrected herself. “No, that’s not
right. It was Memphis. How could I forget! Elvis… Now there was a
man I wouldn’t have minded tripping into bed.”

Gladys’ eyes glazed over, her mind went to a
faraway place as I tried to swallow around the lump in my throat.
It couldn’t be, could it? Is it possible someone had followed our
trail? I wondered if it was related to the rogue Librarian, but
could she have been following us that long? I chewed my lip, my
mind drifted away as well.

“Ah,” Gladys sighed, calling my attention
back to the garden shop. “That brother of yours. One of these days
I’m going to tear his clothes off with my teeth!”

My eyes got wide, and I stared at her in a
bizarre blend of amusement and bewilderment. Imagining my brother
having sex was gross enough, but with an old lady to boot? Thanks,
I’ll pass. Instead, I gathered my things from the office and waved
at Mr. Peterson hunched over on the phone.