Page 77 of The Sin Eater
It fucking sucks.
“Okay, here’s what I think.” Geordi again, lessinteresting specimenand moreI’m the dude in charge. “You are psychic, but your family channeled your gift into one specific purpose. If you want, we can try to help you break free of that.”
I manage to blink open my eyes. They’re both staring at me through the mirror. Neither looks angry nor disgusted, and I manage to inhale enough air to speak. “That’s what the voice said in my vision,” I say. “Yeah. That’d be good.”
“Good.” Geordi relaxes a fraction. “We’ll probably have to share you, though, outside of the TTGB Division.”
Whatever. In for a penny, in with both feet, I guess, so I keep my mouth shut.
“You shouldn’t have to tell anyone about him for a while.” Micah directs his comment to Geordi, and I bite back a quickI’m right here.
Geordi shrugs, like he’s mentally tabling whatever conundrum they’ve been parsing. “So here’s what we’ll do. When you get back to Seattle, I’ll meet with you and our other resident psychic to see if we can get a handle on what’s going on. Once we know what you’re working with, we can develop a plan.”
“Why do I feel like I’m meeting with HR at work?” The snark breaks free before I can control it. Both of them laugh, though, so it’s okay, and I finally turn around and face them.
“It’s his bedside manner.” Micah says. “He worked the same magic on me.”
“Huh. So do you have extraordinary powers or gifts or whatever?”
Micah’s smile dims enough to make me wish I’d kept my mouth shut. He gives Geordi a long look that clearly asks a question.
“Up to you,” Geordi murmurs. Micah tips his head, and there’s a hawk sitting on the table where Micah used to be.
I’d back up but I’m already jammed against the dresser. “What the fuck?”
Geordi doesn’t look fussed at all. “He’s a polymorph, which means he can take on any form he chooses, although raptors don’t belong in the house, Jenkins.” He adds extra emphasis to the last phrase and by the time he’s done speaking, Micah’s back in his chair, with a sheepish grin and not a hair out of place.
“How the fuck did y’all do that?”
“Now you sound like you’re from Arkansas.” Geordi stands, obviously intending to leave now that he and Micah have blown my fucking mind.
“It’s who I am.” Micah’s still sitting, which is good because I have questions.
“I’m going to head down and see if we can get a table for dinner,” Geordi says. On his way to the door, he extends his hand. I take it, too rattled to do anything but, and as we shake, he says, “We’ll make things better for you, Ezra Huckaby.I’llmake things better for you.”
We shake hands, he leaves, and I slouch over to the bed. “All I wanted to do was get drunk and figure out where to go next.”
“Where to go?” Micah asks. “What do you mean?”
I lay on my back, arms flopped out, arms closed. “I can’t stay in Seattle, man. I blew it all up.” I want to lay there until everything goes away, so of course Micah has questions.
“You quit your job?”
“Nah, the medical director talked me into taking a leave.”
“Move out of your apartment?”
“Didn’t want to break the lease until I knew where I was going.”
There’s a long silence and I sorta melt into the bed. There’s one thing I absolutely did blow up, and as long as Micah doesn’t go there, then I won’t have to either.
“Your boyfriend, then?”
“Ah man, you went there.” I roll over and bury my face in my arms. Somewhere Gram is saying,bless your heart, Ezra Lane. “Yeah, I pretty much screwed the pooch on that one.”
“What?” He’s laughing, so now I can add annoyance to the mix of sadness and shame I’m dealing with. I’d managed pretty well not thinking about Damon, and I don’t really want to start now.
Liar.