The Change: Episode one (14 page)

C

“
Come.” I waved Daniel to
my side as the Network truck rumbled on, and he responded quickly.
His blue cloak flashed out behind him clumsily, and I watched him
trip over the rocks, catching himself with a tempting
flush.

“
This is your home
now.”

I wondered what he was thinking as his wary
eyes went over the small, nearly crumbling white dome where we
would live. Our mostly underground homestead had looked the same
before. Would it trigger a memory?

“
Just us?”

I swallowed my
disappointment… and the pain. He may never remember. I had to
accept that and be happy that
I
always would. I’d kept my promise to him, found
him and brought him back to my arms. In time, it would temper my
pain.

“
My mother and father, two
cousins and their parents also share this place.”

Daniel stared in surprise. Starting to
realize how lucky he was that I’d chosen him, or worried that he
would be shared, I couldn’t tell.

“
You have three males here
already?”

I turned a sharp look his
way, one he cringed from. “Fathers and mates with
changeling
children.”

His face relaxed a bit. Clearly, he’d been
expecting worse. In other families, he would have been right. The
average home held five or more changelings at any given time.

“
Do I… speak with
them?”

I wanted to smile, but his
fear hurt me. He was terrified that I’d slave him out.
Damn the Network!

“
If you like.”

I could have told him of our bonds, our
differences from most Network families, but moved across the yard
instead. He would see it for himself, and I was hoping those faces
might shock him into recognition if my first plan failed.

He moved to my side, and the hunger rose
another notch as I studied him. When he wasn’t tripping over his
own feet, Daniel had a swagger he wasn’t even aware of. It made his
shoulders seem wider, his face more attractive... Had he been this
beautiful as a child? I couldn’t be sure.

Daniel stayed on my heels as I skirted the
long row of deadly thorn trees and entered the back yard. From
here, we had an open view of the slummy street he had grown up on.
We were only a quarter a mile from his former home, and I watched
his eyes go over it and then the grimy children playing in the
rubble that lined it. Did he feel anything?

“
Who are they?”

Did I tell the truth? These were very likely
sisters, cousins. His head swung to mine, full of confusion and
something else. Awareness maybe?

“
Poor
people.”

He didn’t understand my scorn, thought I
held them in contempt for having no financial value, and I let him.
It was better to take the blows in succession than to be nailed
with them all at once. Finding out your family had sold you to the
Network, and then gone on to have more children, was a vicious blow
to handle.

As if he read my thought, his body
shuddered. “I know that place!”

Daniel swung back to the
street that we’d run on, hidden in, looted for treasures. He’d
never been allowed into my home. Not because he was poor, but
because his family had always known
his
value. They’d taken no chances on
losing him to the Pruetts for something as unimportant as a mate,
when there were millions of UDs waiting as soon as he fit the
Network’s sale rules.

“
Have I been here
before?”

“
Yes… with me.”

That admission had him forgetting his place
and stepping closer with a voice ringing out in delicious emotions.
“That’s why I feel like I know you. I do!”

Daniel stopped, seeing my tension, and his
handsome face flushed. “Sorry.”

Carefully controlled, I nodded and pushed
him back to the awful memories now waiting just below the surface.
“That is where you came from.”

He turned back to the
plastic-covered shacks and snotty children, and I saw another flash
of
my
Daniel. It
was the third. The second had been how high his head was held as he
stepped into the crate marked as my property. It had made me
grin.

“
I’m feeling very angry
right now. Is that allowed?”

I snorted gently. If anyone had the right to
rage, it was the males of this new America. “Yes.”

“
I want to go down
there.”

I waved a hand in answer and trailed him as
he headed for the past. He was having flashes. I could see it in a
sudden pause and stiffening of those wide shoulders. The memories
wouldn’t be easy. Born to sell, the Malin family had done it for
centuries. It was how they paid for so many daughters, I guessed,
though after seeing how the offspring lived compared to the adults,
I suspected it wasn’t out of love.

I had always assumed they were a breeding
farm, trying to have more male births than female. What they were
doing to ensure such success was a mystery, but they’d managed to
produce a male child for every generation as long as the Network
had been keeping records. To achieve it though, I had little doubt
they were doing something illegal.

I smothered another, harsher snort. Not that
the Pruetts always stayed on the Network side of that line.

“
I played
there.”

My heart thudded. Played,
laughed…
cried
.

“
There was a
girl…”

Come on!
My entire being was centered on willing him to
remember me on his own, stealing my attention.

“
You’re a man. You’re not
allowed to be here!”

The warning came from a small, dirty girl
with bright blue eyes and short yellow hair. I scowled at her as
Daniel tensed. “Get lost!”

My growl sent her fleeing into her home…
Daniel’s home, and I knew the damage had been done. Her voice
mirrored his. He knew who she was, what had happened. Memories of
me would have to wait.

“
Sold? By them?” he choked
out the words.

I didn’t lie. “Ten years ago… as with every
male they have.”

I had an idea of what to do for the
depression or grief I expected, but I hadn’t considered the livid
fury that flashed across his thin face as he took my meaning.

“
I’ll understand if you
send me back for this,” he stated almost calmly. “I really am
sorry.”

Before I guessed, he was dipping down the
embankment. Debris began to hit the shack in hard thuds, the bricks
slamming straight through the plastic over the roof. The missiles
rained fast and heavy, his arm full of a pent-up anger I hadn’t
suspected.

“
Slam you!”

Daniel’s enraged scream
sent need, clever and hungry, up my spine. That was
completely
my
Daniel, and it had been so long!

Thud! Thud!
Crack!

That last one came from a beautifully hefted
concrete block slamming into a support pole. The frame shifted and
then collapsed in a spray of dust and debris. It was only a corner
dry-out room, shielded from the acid rain, but to have done it with
his bare hands impressed me.

I let him go until he was spent and a hard
anger had replaced the hurt in his eyes. By now, all the occupants
of the street were hovering around their windows and doorways, but
not one of them approached Daniel when they spotted me standing
tolerantly nearby. As for his cowardly family, there was no sign,
but I was sure they were huddling in the back rooms, wondering if I
would now come in and punish them for what they’d done.

I grinned, wanting to. As long as I stuck
with females, it was a fine I could easily pay. Still, it would
tell the Network more than we could afford for them to know. And it
wasn’t why I’d brought him here anyway.

I smoothed out my face. “Come along.”

Daniel followed me without question, and he
didn’t look back.

Now unclouded by the discovery that had lain
in wait, his eyes noticed the differences as we walked. The rubble
gradually faded into the rows of trees, shielding the view of the
street, protecting them… from us. We weren’t upstanding members of
the community. We were bounty hunters who had to be tiptoed around
because of our affiliation with the Network… and because we were
dangerous.

“
Will there be a
fine?”

I shrugged, encouraged by the tiny hint of
enticing defiance still lingering in his tone. “Don’t let it worry
you.”

I heard him sigh miserably.

“
Even if I need to do it
again?”

There was the pain I’d been expecting, but I
knew how to help him now. I could afford to pay for every brick he
felt like throwing.

“
You’re mine, Daniel.
Nothing you can do will ever change that.”

“
You won’t sell me?
Ever?”

My snap came fast, and we were on the ground
with me reminding him how much he was wanted an instant later. His
anger let him kiss me back, and I felt another dark part of my soul
light up.

“
So this is
Daniel.”

He tensed under me, and I reluctantly drew
back from his lips. “This is my family.”

Daniel was mortified. He
jumped to his feet the instant I rolled off of him, cheeks
flushed.
Sexy
.

“
He grew up.”

My Mother’s approving tone had him turning
to question and then remembering his place. He looked to me for
approval.

My scowl had him snapping his mouth shut. He
was so reactive to my expressions, so wary of displeasing me. What
would ease that?

“
Time.”

Reading me, my Father’s words were
comforting, and I nodded. We had that now.

“
Um, Candy?”

Heat flared at the name. “Yes, Angel?”

My cousin’s fists clenched. “Have you done
much since getting here?”

My mind flashed over our side trip. “There
might have been a tense moment. Why?”

“
No reason, really. Just
wondering about the squad of guards coming up the
driveway.”

Battle-mode fell instantly into place. “Have
they seen us yet?”

“
In about ten
seconds.”

My head spun, and then I was reacting,
throwing myself at Daniel.

“
Grab me!” I demanded
lowly.

Angelica understood right away, leading the
others. “Don’t hurt him! He’s new!”

She jerked lightly on my arm, trying to keep
me from the cowering male, and my parents rushed to help as they
understood.

“
Stop! You’ll hurt
him!”

“
Halt there!”

We ignored the order, struggling, and I
gradually let them pull me away.

Daniel stayed on the ground with Angelica’s
arm blocking his confused face.

“
You there!
Halt!”

We all turned this time, faces covered in
surprise.

“
Who speaks for this
family?”

“
I’m Marion
Pruett.”

My Mother’s voice, the one I’d come to
loathe since the Change, was perfectly annoyed.

“
We’re sorry for the
disturbance.” Her tone grew resigned and a bit frustrated. “She
brought her prize home today.”

The guards looked me over with lips that
wanted to grin, but knew better after watching my matches.

“
We have a report of
property damage. Witnesses said it was a male.” The lead woman’s
stern gray eyes raked over Daniel. “Fitting
his
description.”

I snorted, playing my role perfectly. “That
coward break something?” I laced my tone with scorn. “He’s not
worth the ticket I paid to get in.”

I strode toward the house with the
appearance that I couldn’t care less. “I made the mess. Send the
bill here.”

Angelica waved Daniel after me. “Try not to
draw her anger again.”

My Mother distracted the guards with her
meek tone, “We had hoped she would settle down…”

She sighed unhappily and Angelica completed
the performance. “Maybe another episode of the Bachelor
Battles?”

My Mother cracked a weary smile, and I
listened to the guards’ chuckle as Daniel and I disappeared from
their view. Almost like we’d done it before….

I stormed into the house and Daniel
followed. He stared at the luxury of his new home in surprise as I
listened, timing the moment the guards would come back around this
side of the house to get on their Mopars.

D

Her home was so different than what I’d
expected. The few Changeling quarters I’d… visited, were luxurious
and full of conveniences the rest of the world had to live without.
They were set up for uncaring, lazy people who only wanted the
latest in what was popular, but carried no real sense of it.
Candy’s home was just the opposite. It was like stepping into the
past.

They had art and sculptures, some of them
vaguely familiar. The one over the table, I recognized right away,
but couldn’t remember the name of the awkwardly smiling woman. I
spotted a shiny laser washer for the dishes, and the wall screen
had first-class technology for sure, but everything else seemed to
be the rustic versions of history.

A massive stereo system,
complete with stacks of disks and speakers placed carefully for the
surround sound, drew my eye.
That alone
would get them arrested
, I thought,
remembering the Network’s newest law on noise. Unapproved music of
the old world was a firing squad offense. My head quickly turned
away, not wanting her to think I’d noticed. I picked out archaic
tools and exotic decorations that I knew not to touch, some so old,
they would probably crumble into dust under my clumsy
hands.