Page 25 of Changeling (The Incubus Saga #2)

Nathan concentrated on keeping an eye on his mentally stunted brother and incubus.

About halfway back to their most recent motel, with Walter riding beside Sasha in the backseat, Jim shifted uncomfortably in the front seat only to reach back and pull out the gun that had been tucked securely into his jeans. Nathan immediately snatched it away.

“Easy rule, Jim. What is it?” Nathan said, slipping the gun under his seat.

Jim’s eyes bugged out from having found the gun at all. “Never play with guns.”

“That’s right,” Nathan nodded. He glanced up at Sasha in the rearview mirror. “I’m gonna need yours too, pal.”

Sasha’s head was slightly lowered with his body hunched like he wanted to curl into a ball and hide. He reached to the back of his jeans hesitantly and found a gun just as Jim had. His hands shook when he passed it up to Nathan.

“Don’t worry. I’m gonna take care of you guys,” Nathan said reassuringly, turning his head back to Sasha just long enough to smile before placing Sasha’s gun under his seat with Jim’s.

“We just…we just gotta figure this out. We’ll have to move to another motel, too.

The one we’re at now knows you guys as…well, normal. Safer to find a new one.”

“This kind of magic almost certainly originates from a dark sidhe , Nathan, not just fae,” Walter offered. “However, I do not understand what one could possibly gain by stealing years.”

Nathan was having a hard time wrapping his head around that too.

“M-Motel…?” Sasha’s uncharacteristically soft voice stuttered from the back seat.

Nathan glanced up at the mirror again and caught Sasha’s frightened expression.

This was a five-year-old incubus he was dealing with.

There was a whole other world of anxieties Sasha was facing.

It made Nathan’s stomach turn to think that Sasha was caught somewhere between really trusting him and fearing him.

Thinking quickly of a way to comfort the redhead, Nathan reached across to flip Jim’s visor down where there was a small mirror.

“Hey, take a look at yourselves, huh,” Nathan said, nodding up at the rearview mirror for Sasha to look, too.

They both obeyed, curiosity getting the better of them most likely, and stared at their unfamiliar reflections.

Jim touched his entire face, pushing fingertips into his cheeks like the whole thing had to be a mask.

“I look like Dad, too,” Jim grinned. Family resemblance was definitely helping Jim in the trust department, but Nathan had to go a step further for Sasha.

“You look more like Dad than me, I think,” Nathan smiled back at his brother.

He looked up to catch Sasha then, who was still gauging the image of himself in the mirror and touching his face like Jim had.

Nathan pulled his phone out and started covertly searching through pictures.

When he found the one he wanted, he passed it over to Jim first. “Check that out.”

Jim was at first awed by the phone itself, and then his whole face lit up as his eyes fell upon the picture. “It’s us!” he cried happily, and without Nathan having to prompt him, he passed the phone back to Sasha.

Those same shaky hands accepted the phone, and Sasha’s eyes widened in wonder.

“That’s me…” he said, touching a finger to the screen.

It was a picture Nathan had taken the previous night, before Charis and Lindsey's arrival.

It was at an awkward angle since Nathan had simply stretched his arm out to fit them all into it.

All three of them were visible, though, Sasha in the middle with an arm around both brothers. They were smiling.

“See? Friends. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said to Sasha’s reflection.

Bright, watery blue eyes looked up at him.

“I’m not going to do anything to you but try and get your brains back to the age of your bodies.

Now...do you guys got any knives on you?

Any other weapons? Give yourselves a pat down. I don’t want you cutting yourselves.”

The response from the others was equally confused and shocked stares.

Nathan was pulling into the motel finally.

He had passed another one on the way that would do well enough for them to move to.

Nathan pulled into a spot in the motel’s lot and shifted into PARK, but when he looked at the others, they were still just staring at him.

“Here. Like this,” Nathan said, unbuckling his seatbelt and leaning towards Jim. He placed the flat of his palms on Jim’s chest and gave two firm pats. “You just pat down your body like this and see if you feel anything under your clothes that isn’t… you .”

Nathan basically did Jim’s pat down for him, from Jim’s chest, down his stomach, and then down his legs. Jim squirmed the entire time as if it tickled.

“Actually,” Nathan said, opening Jim’s jacket and reaching into one of his pockets. Jim usually kept extra weapons in more accessible places, and indeed Nathan pulled out a fairly good-sized knife.

Jim gaped.

“Don’t worry, Jim. You know I’d never let anything happen to you, right?” Nathan opened the glove box and quickly stored Jim’s knife in there.

“I know, Nate. You’re my brother,” Jim said in a small voice. When Nathan looked at him, Jim’s smile was wide and blinding, filled with the pure, untainted love of a child.

There was a sudden tinny thud from behind them. Nathan turned to look back and saw that Sasha was shaking, staring at the knife he must have just found and then dropped between the seats.

Nathan immediately reached to pick the knife up, looking on sympathetically at what was so clearly the little boy in the backseat. Sasha just looked so scared. Nathan hated to see fear on the face of someone he knew was usually so strong.

“Careful. Careful, it’s okay,” Nathan said slow and steady to Sasha. “I think this one’s iron so you gotta watch out.”

Those bright blue eyes stretched wider than ever, and Sasha gathered his feet up onto the seat, trying to hug himself into a ball. His body was too large for him to really accomplish that successfully, and he just looked so desperately sad.

“It’s okay,” Nathan said again, quickly disposing of Sasha’s knife in the glove box next to Jim’s. When Nathan turned back to Sasha, there were tears filling the incubus’ eyes and he was shaking harder. “Sasha…” Nathan tried, reaching for one of Sasha’s knees.

The redhead flinched back and pressed himself against the door. “I wanna go home…” he said pitifully, his tears breaking and finally falling freely.

“It’s okay, Sasha,” only it was Jim speaking this time instead of Nathan, “Nathan’s a good brother. He can help. You don’t hafta be scared. We’re friends in the picture, ‘member?”

The incubus stared at Nathan’s phone that was lying next to him in the backseat.

It was still open. Sasha reached for it with trembling fingers and looked at the image again.

“We’re…friends,” he said softly, touching the screen.

“But I’m an incubus,” only the word came out sounding more like ‘inky-bus’ and Nathan tried not to laugh. “You don’t…you don’t c-care?”

Reaching back farther so that this time he succeeded when he grabbed hold of one of Sasha’s knees, Nathan forced his eyes to look as soft and kind as he could.

“Not even a little, pal. In fact, I think it’s kinda cool,” Nathan admitted with a smirk.

“Never been a doubt you’re a good guy. That’s all that matters. Friends mean that’s all that matters.”

This time Sasha relaxed under Nathan’s touch instead of shrinking away. He nodded meekly and tried to smile back at Nathan, still so obviously timid. “Okay. Nathan. J-Jim. No need…to be scared.” Sasha nodded again as if he was convincing himself.

“No need to be scared at all,” Nathan affirmed. “Or any need to be all quiet, either. Hard to believe even a five-year-old incubus would ever be shy.”

A blush spread across Sasha’s cheeks. He uncurled and placed his feet on the floor of the car again, allowing Nathan’s hand to move to the top of his thigh where it patted a few times supportively. “My aunt says…she says I-I’ll…grow out of it.”

Nathan couldn’t help smirking at that. “You do. Believe me.”

“Nathan?” interjected Jim.

Pulling his hand back from Sasha’s thigh, Nathan turned to his brother.

“What’s an incubus?”

Crap . “Uhh…look. Let’s just get through closing things out at the motel first. We can talk more when we get to the new one.

I just need to grab our things. You guys stay here.

” Nathan was about to turn off the engine but, considering how cold it was this time of year in Maine, he decided to leave the car running.

“You’re leaving us?” Sasha asked in a small, breathy voice, frightened all over again.

“Just for a couple minutes. Can’t risk taking you in with me and having to answer questions. Now, I normally wouldn’t think it was a good idea to leave two five-year-olds alone in a car for even one minute, but you guys are gonna behave for me, right?”

Sasha and Jim looked too nervous to do anything but nod. Walter gave Nathan a pointed look that said he would come for him if anything happened.

“Good. And you don’t have to worry about anyone trying to kidnap you.

Anyone looks in here, you know what they’re gonna find?

Two tough-looking guys, that’s what. No one can tell you’re kids.

Just give me five minutes. Look at the rest of the pictures on my phone.

You just press the button there.” Nathan reached back and showed Sasha how, who still had the phone clutched in his hand.

“You don’t have to tell Jim what an incubus is if you don’t want to,” he added to Sasha.

Jim pulled on an impressive pout.