Page 27 of Changeling (The Incubus Saga #2)

Jim and Sasha both helped bring in their things, seemingly enjoying how much stronger they both were. After they were settled, Sasha sat down on the edge of one of the beds, looking rather out of place, and Jim jumped up in front of Nathan.

“I like Ula!” Jim announced. “She’s not like other people.”

Nathan chuckled at the comment. “Ya got that right.”

“Hey, umm…Nathan?” Jim asked, suddenly sounding almost as unsure of himself as Sasha, as his bouncing came to a stop.

“Yeah, pal, what is it?”

Jim leaned real close to Nathan’s ear, like he was sharing the deepest secret, and said, “I gotta go to the bathroom.”

There wasn’t enough alcohol or patience in the world . “So go,” Nathan said. “You’re toilet trained. You know what you’re doing. It’s right over there.” Nathan pointed to the bathroom. The door was open so it was obvious what the little room was.

Jim nodded and headed off immediately.

Nathan called after him, “And wash your hands!” realizing as he did so how much he sounded like a watchful mother.

Then Nathan was alone with Sasha and he took small comfort in that. His main priority had to be making sure that Sasha was okay. Half the time, Nathan still worried he might say or do something to make his friend bolt.

“How you doing, bab—” Nathan literally bit his tongue, “ buddy ,” he amended, hoping Sasha hadn’t noticed his slip.

“You holding up okay? I know this is weird, but you’re not having any doubts about trusting us anymore, are you?

Jim didn’t scare you in the car or anything?

” Nathan grinned as he crouched down in front of Sasha.

“No,” Sasha said, with that same small voice.

His eyes were downcast, just barely peeking up at Nathan as he sat on the bed.

“It’s just…I-I’m not…I’m not u-used to…” Sasha scowled at his inability to say what he wanted.

Finally, he gave a very large child-like huff, leaned forward off the bed to get closer to Nathan, and said, “You feel really loud.”

Nathan blinked. “I feel really…” He trailed then couldn’t help grinning as he realized what Sasha meant. “My emotions. You’re not used to being able to feel them from people as strong as you can now. Right?”

Sasha nodded.

“Well, I’m sorry for being loud,” Nathan said with a smile. “I kinda do everything loud. Bet Jim’s not much better, huh? But you gotta know then from what you can feel from us just how much we care about you. We couldn’t fake that.”

Again, Sasha nodded, which was why Nathan didn’t really understand why the incubus was still being so timid.

“There something else?” Nathan pressed, softly to make Sasha feel more comfortable.

Another nod, but Sasha didn’t immediately say anything.

The incubus actually looked embarrassed, and when he finally spoke again, his voice was so soft and quiet that Nathan had to strain to catch what Sasha said.

“I can…see them on you. The…pheromones.” Just as ‘incubus’ had come out sounding kind of funny, ‘pheromones’ sounded more like ‘fair-moans’.

Nathan's initial assumption had definitely been correct: Jim and Sasha’s bodies still contained all the same abilities, it was just their minds that had been stunted. Nathan tried to remain calm after learning that. “Right,” he said slowly, “and you…know what that means?”

Sasha nodded once more. His eyes looked so big and wide, perfectly reflecting the child inside of him. “You’re not…mad?” he questioned.

“Mad?”

“Aren’t you mad that I-I’m…feeding from you?”

God . Nathan just wanted to hug the poor kid. “Sasha, I couldn’t be mad about that. It’s not like you’re sneaking into my bed while I’m sleeping. It’s…it’s a mutual decision.”

Sasha tilted his head.

“It means we both know about it and we’re both okay with it.

We…both want it,” Nathan explained, feeling sort of weird discussing this with someone mentally so young.

But then Sasha was an incubus, so of course he knew some of this stuff already.

It was part of his very makeup, even if he wouldn’t need to feed from sex until he was sixteen.

Nathan had a pretty good idea that Sasha probably didn’t know all of the details involved in sex yet anyway.

Still, he reassured his friend by saying, “You don’t have to worry. You’re, uhh…pretty freshly fed. You won’t need to even think about it. I’ll have you back to normal long before then.”

At last, Sasha looked relieved and soothed enough that Nathan saw the incubus’ shoulders relax. He smiled and it was much realer than any of the smiles Nathan had seen from him so far. “Okay, Nathan. Thank you. You’re really nice.”

Nathan chuckled. “Thanks. But, uhh…would you mind keeping this whole pheromone, you’re feeding from me thing a secret from Jim? I don’t think he’d understand. Seems you didn’t tell him what an incubus is anyway, right?”

Sasha sat up straighter. “No. I told him. You said it was okay.”

Hearing Sasha sound all worried again made Nathan speak up quickly. “I did . I did say it was okay. You’re not in trouble,” Nathan assured him, placing both hands on Sasha’s knees since he was still crouched in front of the bed. “Just, umm…what exactly did you tell him?”

“Well…I said that an incubus,” sounding like ‘inky-bus’ again, “is just like a human but…we’re stronger, and we can fly, and some other stuff too.

But even though some people think we’re scary, we’re not.

We just need to be around people coz we feed off how they feel.

Like food. Only I need real food too.” Sasha's eyes were far away like he was checking his memory to be sure that was everything. “Yeah,” he said, “that’s all. Was…that okay?”

That was a mouthful. Nathan had started to doubt Sasha could talk that much as a five-year-old. “That was fine,” Nathan said with a smile, squeezing Sasha’s knees. “And…what did Jim say to all that?”

“He said he thought that sounded real cool, and that he wants to see me fly sometime. I said I wasn’t sure I could show him coz I’m too young to do a glamour, but my body seems to know, I guess.

I just don’t wanna change and not be able to change back.

Oh! And he told me he’s a changeling. He said that if we’re friends, and he knows I’m an incubus, then I should know what he is too.

But it’s okay. I’m not scared of changelings. "

Nathan sighed in relief as the brunt of all that sunk in. “Good to know,” he said, reaching up with one hand to smooth back Sasha’s hair. “I’m just glad you and Jim are getting along okay.”

Jim . Where was Jim? He had been in the bathroom for a long time now.

“Hang on a sec,” Nathan told Sasha, and got up to walk over to the bathroom. He knocked a couple times before calling out, “Jim! What are you doing in there? Food’s gonna be here soon!”

But even as Nathan said all that, it started to dawn on him what Jim was almost certainly preoccupied with in the bathroom. There were definitely some differences between a five-year-old body and a twenty-five-year-old one. Nathan grimaced. He suddenly really didn’t want Jim to answer honestly.

“Never mind!” he called quickly. “Just…just hurry it up, okay!”

The bathroom door opened and there was Jim, blinking at Nathan innocently. “I’m done,” he said before stepping out, “I was just—”

“I haven’t even heard it yet and it’s too much information,” Nathan broke in, a hand held up like a stop sign to make sure Jim didn’t speak further. “Just, uhh…keep some things to yourself, okay? I need to figure out how we're going to fix all this.”

And then Nathan was back to thinking about reality and just how fucked they were.

He sat on the edge of one of the beds, touching a hand to his sore chest, then to his bruised and battered shoulder. It seemed he was never going to recover fully; not with his luck. He quickly downed an extra dose of his meds.

Nathan remained lost in thought long after Ula had brought in breakfast, as Sasha and Jim ravaged the food at the small motel room table.

He dug the book out of Jim’s belongings, the one he had originally used to summon the Messenger to get Jim back from the dark fae court.

He paged through it for some time before coming to the conclusion that there was nothing within its pages that could help him.

Not with this. It was mostly for summoning fae, and Nathan didn’t have any of the things he would need to try and summon whoever was responsible for the Animus House curse.

As he contemplated his options, his eyes drifted to Sasha's now discarded leather jacket. Without a moment's hesitation, Nathan grabbed Sasha’s cell phone out of the jacket pocket. It rang only once before a familiar voice answered.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Shiarra said from the other end of the line. “Everything all right?”

“It’s Nathan.”

Silence. Then, “What happened?”

Nathan swallowed thickly. “I need your help.”

The day dragged by. Even at top speeds and with use of doorways, Shiarra wouldn't arrive until morning.

Keeping two five-year-olds occupied for an entire day proved more trying than Nathan anticipated, until Ula thankfully showed up with coloring books and DVDs from their stash for children.

The sweet girl had thought Nathan might be offended by the gesture, seeing as how Sasha and Jim were 'special' and not actually children, which almost made Nathan wish he could tell her the truth.

Walter returned with news of the Animus House a short while after Ula had left, but not good news.

There was no sign of dark sidhe activity at all anywhere near the rubble.

Whoever controlled those spells was long gone, and Nathan was going to need that person—sidhe or otherwise—in order to change Sasha and Jim back.

“I sense fae here , Nathan,” Walter commented as he looked around the motel room. “Nearby. Not sidhe, however, so it could be a coincidence and not a threat, but you should be mindful. Something is not as it seems.”