Nos Faux Ratu Ch. 07

Pegg felt her coming more than saw her. His eyes were attempting to track, but it was like trying to watch a single snowflake fall in a snowstorm. Nessa's "angel" was everywhere, yet nowhere. And before he knew it, she was in front of him.

When she came to a stop, it scared the crap out of Pegg's bodyguard. Glickler turned to grab the specter that had appeared in their mist, but he was far, far too slow. Jenna grabbed Glickler by the wrist, twisted that wrist all the way back to the arm in a sickening snap, then hurled him head first into one of the steel beams lining the dance floor.

Garon Pegg had a frantic look on his face as his clawed hands stretched out to rake the angel's face, but they whistled harmlessly through the air. Jenna had vanished. Then, Pegg felt hands on either side of his head, pressing hard against his temples. He enemy was behind him. "Get her!" he snarled through sharpened teeth.

Several more of his guard tried, but it was like fighting a whirlwind. Without ever removing her hands from Pegg's head or releasing the pressure, Jenna used her legs to keep everyone at bay. More specifically, she used them to kick any would-be rescuers into the middle of next week. And her hands kept squeezing.

It only took a few more seconds before everyone heard the cracking as Garon Pegg's head imploded. Jenna twisted, snapping the werewolf's neck for good measure. And the room went quiet.

Nessa looked down with sad satisfaction. True, she had hated Garon Pegg, but she had never wanted it to come to this. But even Nessa was surprised. He had been an alpha werewolf, and Jenna had brutally dispatched of him as if her were nothing but an afterthought. She opened her mouth to address the crowd, but another voice beat her to it. From the top of the Stairway to Heaven –

"What the fuck is up with you people? Did that ghost just kill a werewolf?!"

Everyone's eyes shot up to see a fifteen-year-old boy staring out at the chaos.

"Hey," Kobal said, "that kid looks a lot like --" He stopped when Nessa, who had floated down to the ground, shot him a "speak and die" glare. "Never mind."

Nessa turned towards Jenna, who had gone still as the grave. She hurried over. "I didn't know that they'd brought him here," she whispered, but Jenna turned away.

"He can't see me," the new vampire whispered, bloody tears touching her eyes and dripping down her cheeks. "How could you do this? I didn't want him involved!" she hissed.

Nessa got in front of her new child before she could do something drastic, like run screaming into the night faster than anyone could possibly catch her. She looked around. "Everyone, establish a perimeter. Send a crew to the Stone Table and make sure everything there is fixed and up to standards. And any werewolves who participated in this attack, get down on the floor right now as a sign of surrender, or I will start killing people." The sound of furry bodies hitting the floor was almost deafening. "Demons, get a capture crew together and put these mutts into confinement until I can get an alpha out here to take charge." She glanced up and saw Avery ushering young William back into the VIP lounge.

"Why . . . is . . . he . . . here?" Jenna asked, still hiding her blood-stained face.

"The Fool sent a couple of people to get him at school," Nessa said. "Avery wasn't able to explain everything, but they brought him back here because there's nowhere else that's safe for him until this is --"

"Safe?! This war was brought to your doorstep! You brought him here!" Jenna said, her eyes taking on that ethereal glow once again.

Nessa needed to stop this and stop it now. Jenna's soul was too raw and her mind to fragile to let her spin out of control. She stepped forward. "I was asleep. I didn't know about any of this until we woke up. But if you want to know, I would have approved it. Nigel and Avery and Caitlin have a plan --"

"You!" Jenna growled towards her oldest "friend." "How could you --"

Nessa picked Jenna up and pushed her against a wall. The only thing keeping her there was the shock of being manhandled, since Jenna could probably kick Nessa's ass at the moment. "He saved William," Nessa said. "Now let's go somewhere a bit more private and we can discuss this."

"I should go," Jenna said, haunted eyes drawn to the door to the VIP lounge. "He can't see me! He can't ever see me."

"He's already seen you," Nessa whispered, her voice soft and calm. She led Jenna over towards the bar, where Nigel and Caitlin were waiting. Caitlin's eyes were drawn to the bloody tears on Jenna's face. 'This is the moment where we find out what stuff she's made of,' Nessa thought of the newcomer.

Caitlin looked terrified. Yet, she grabbed a napkin and stepped forward. Jenna just stared at her as the Nightwalker began to clean off her face.

"You're kind of a mess," she said. "Jenna, I'm so sorry. They said he was in danger, they told me who he was --"

"You shouldn't have brought him here," Jenna interrupted, trying to find her anger again. But she just felt too hollow.

"If we hadn't did what we did, he'd have been out there, unprotected," Nigel said. "Do you really think I would have done this if I thought there was a better way of keeping him safe?"

Nessa sat on the bar, and she held Jenna's hand. Partly, it was to comfort her youngest, but it was also so that she couldn't just take off running without some kind of warning. "Jenna, he's here. Let them explain why, and then we figure this out."

Jenna straightened her spine, then stood there and listened. And the more they spoke, the more she begrudgingly admitted that there plan did not suck. But it still left them in an enormous quandary.

"Nessa, I can't let him get hurt," Jenna reiterated, her voice conveying how close she was breaking down.

"And we won't let him. I promise you. The Fool had forty-eight more hours before he's likely to get any reinforcements, right?"

"Less now," Nigel said. "If we're going to move against him, it should probably be within twenty-four hours."

"Dammit." Nessa looked back to Jenna. "And we still need to figure out what to do about William."

"What do you mean? We finish off the Fool, then William escapes. What's the problem?"

"And William will say . . . what? That he was held captive by vampires and werewolves and a banshee --"

"Leave me out of this," Anabella said. "I just came down to get some bourbon." She grabbed a bottle and headed upstairs. "Whatever you folks decide, ya better do it quick. That boy's gettin' a might nosy, and he ain't stupid."

Nessa glared at her friend, then went back to her concern. "I can't let him leave knowing what he knows and seeing what he's seen."

Jenna's entire being started to buzz. "What are you saying?"

"Well, I have to go into his mind and erase the memories. Anything that's happened since the moment he was kidnapped." Nessa saw Jenna flinch almost instantly. "Of course, there's option B."

"Which is?"

Nigel gripped Jenna's hand. "We tell him the truth."

"What?! No, we can't do that!"

"Jenna, he's right here," Nessa reminded her newborn. "And he's been looking for you. Don't you think he deserves to know the truth?"

Jenna's eyes turned hard as steel and sharp and broken glass. "The truth would do nothing but hurt him. How can you even suggest --"

"Then we can go with the other option and I'll rifle through his brain," Nessa said. She was worried now how Jenna would react, but the new vampire was not the only one upset by this line of questioning. Caitlin looked pretty pissed. "Jenna, why don't you think about this. Please, just consider what I've said. Okay?"

Jenna's eyes had not grown any softer as she backed away. Nessa had just given her two unacceptable options, and it was clear that the situation was not setting well with her. Nigel walked with her, hoping to prevent her from doing anything rash.

"You have an opinion?" the vampire asked, turning to face Caitlin.

"I know what you're doing," the Nightwalker replied cautiously, "but have you truly considered the repercussions?"

"She's been watching him for twelve or thirteen years. I think her son should have an opportunity to get to know her, and --"

"And what if her son rejects her?" Caitlin said, glancing in the direction Jenna had gone. "Have you actually contemplated what would happen if, after all she's been through and all she's tried to recover from, he just can't handle it? His father was a rapist and a psychopath. That's a hell of a pill to swallow. I dare say it wouldn't even make him a bad kid if he just wanted nothing to do with her if he found that out. What if he's just bitter that she never tried to contact him despite sitting across the street every time he got out of school? Yeah, Nigel told me all about that."

Nessa took a step back. Caitlin was right. She had not thought about what would happen if William denounced his mother or, worse yet, hated her for what had happened. After all, Jenna had hated herself for so long despite having done nothing wrong.

"But the fact remains, those are the two options. Unless you or any of the brain surgeons that brought him here in the first place can come up with a cover story. Or did you actually tell him that you'd kidnapped him for his own good?"

Caitlin's skin flushed a bit. "No need to be snarky."

"Every need to be snarky. It's called 'deflection'. I figured you'd know all about this, Little Miss Therapist --"

"You've been alive for thousands of years, and you never even contemplated --" Caitlin stopped and just threw her hands up in the air. "Okay, I'm not going to belabor the point. And no, I don't have any backup plan that'll make sense of all of this."

"Well then," Nessa said, giving her companion a wry smile, "Why don't we --"

"Nessa!" Avery shouted from the top of the Stairway. He looked . . . well, terrified. And not much scared Avery. "I . . . uhm . . . he's missing."

Before Nessa could even contemplate moving, Jenna had appeared at the top of the stairs.

"WHO is missing?"

Nessa hurried to get up the stairs before Jenna disassembled her chauffeur. "Please tell me you're kidding," Nessa said, talking to Avery as Jenna had him pinned to a wall. "How . . . this building is secure!"

"He went into the bathroom --" Avery said, not liking the look of pure mayhem in Jenna's eyes. "I mean, no one sneaks through air ducts anymore!"

Nessa sighed, then looked at Jenna. "Put him down. Even the air vents in this place are locked down. He's not going anywhere, so don't worry."

"My . . . son . . . is lost in the air vents of a multi-story building, and you want me not to worry?!"

"Hey," Nessa said, taking a step back, "don't yell at me. Avery lost him!"

"You're loyalty to your employees is underwhelming," Avery croaked.

Nessa looked around and spotted Lawrence. "Take to the vents," she told him. "He's climbing, so we should be able to catch him. Anabella, I . . . Where's Anabella?"

"I'm a comin'," the banshee said as she approached. She seemed to be struggling with a lace on her bodice and –

Nessa stepped up to her and sniffed. "What were you doing?"

The banshee began to stammer, then glanced at Avery, who was a bit occupied by praying to whoever might be listening to let him survive Jenna's anger.

"You smell like . . . oh good grief, NOW you decide to have sex with Avery?!"

Jenna's eyes snapped to the banshee, and then back to Avery. "You . . . what?"

"Well, tah be honest, the fight had just broken up, and he was lookin' all manly and such --"

Nessa rolled her eyes. "I've been trying to get you two together for years, and . . . and . . . Aurgh!" She took off flying towards the mens' restroom.

"Jenna, please --" Avery said, trying to catch his breath.

Jenna put him down, then closed her eyes. "Find him," she said. "Please?"

Avery was on his way as soon as his feet hit the floor, mobilizing the foot soldiers as they initiated a manhunt for a teenage boy.

"He's going to be okay," Caitlin said, stepping up and taking Jenna's hand. She could swear that if Jenna still needed to breathe, she would be hyperventilating.

"How could this have all gone so wrong?" the new vampire whispered. "All his life, all that I ever wanted was to keep him safe, and I drug him into this --"

"No, you didn't," Caitlin said sternly. "The Fool did. Now you have the opportunity to make things right."

"How? Caitlin, I'm terrified. What if he hates me?"

The Nightwalker sighed. This was what she had thought might happen. "Then he hates you. I may have only known about this whole situation for a day, but I know one thing for sure. You won't let someone go in and mess with the boy's mind, so maybe the only option you have is to come clean. Maybe he can handle it, maybe he can't, but you have to stop taking all the blame for everything, and you need to stop being afraid. And even if talking to him hurts like nothing else, it'll be better than if you torture yourself until the end of time wondering 'what if?'."

"I heard you talking to Nessa," Jenna said, looking confused. "Apparently, my hearing is a bit better than normal. I thought you didn't want me to --"

"I didn't want you to feel you were being forced into it or tricked into it," Caitlin said. "Because that wouldn't be fair to you or to your son. But answer this, Jenna, and you're the only one who can. Do you WANT him to know you?"

Jenna's forever-stilled heart seemed to want to climb into her throat. Her mouth opened, but she could not vocalize her fear or her hopes or her –

Caitlin kissed her. Out of the blue and with the force of a tidal wave, the Nightwalker planted a long, soft kiss on Jenna's lips. Jenna did not understand it. She also didn't want it to stop. But eventually, Caitlin simply ran out of breath.

"What was that for?" Jenna said.

"Well one, I've been wanting to do it for years," Caitlin said, a blush creeping over her face. "Two, you seemed nervous, and a kiss always seems to help. You know, in the movies and stuff."

Jenna stared at her. "Movies?"

"Yeah, in --"

"No wait, movies! In the movies, people always escape by crawling through air vents, right?"

"I guess --"

"And where do the vents always seem to end up?"

Caitlin cocked her head. "You want to base a search for your son on the architectural imaginings of 'Lethal Weapon 42'?"

"Who watches movies like that?"

"Just teenage . . . oh." Caitlin said. "The roof, then?"

"The roof," Jenna said, glad to finally have a plan. She turned towards the lift, then turned back, grabbed Caitlin by the front of her armor, and kissed her right back. Her attempt was still a bit clumsier than Caitlin's or Nessa's might have been, but it was certainly earnest enough.

"Okay, that was . . . unexpected," Caitlin said at last, licking her lips. She was not-so-surprisingly a bit turned on, even as she watched Jenna crouch and then headed upward at great velocity. The Nightwalker couldn't tell if Jenna had just jumped or was flying, but either way, it was pretty damn cool.

"I think she likes you," Nigel said.

"Yeah," Caitlin said with a grin, "though that probably just means that she'll kill me last if anything happens to the kid."

Jenna made haste to the roof as others scoured the vents, access tunnels, and every room in the privately owned skyscraper. Apparently getting into the building was hard, getting out was hard, but getting lost was easy. She emerged onto the roof and immediately found herself awestruck by the night sky. The darkness of the heavens, broken only ghostly illumination of the city lights reflecting off of low-hanging clouds. And oh how the lights of New Atlanta shone, hi-tech firefly in a world of steel and glass. She had never experienced the night quite like this. It was so beautiful it made her want to cry. But something inside her clicked on, and she remembered what she was doing up there, and it wasn't sight-seeing.

She explored the roof completely, which at the speed she was moving took only a minute or two. She stopped and examined every door, lift, or vent big enough to accommodate a young man could possible slipped through. Then, she began to listen. She was convinced that she could hear everything! The hawks perched in a nearby skyscraper might as well have been sitting on her shoulder, and the thriving hum of mechanical and human traffic drifted up from below. Her city was not quite asleep, experiencing electronic REM and wicked dreams. She smelled the life of the urban jungle, and found it intoxicating. Then, something caught her attention.

Jenna ripped the grate off of a cooling vent, reached inside, and pulled her young quarry out in a swift series of movements.

"Don't kill me!" William said when he flipped over. He instinctively covered his face but, when he peaked through his fingers, did not see anyone. "Hello?" His heart was pounding like an blacksmith's hammer, as whoever had grabbed him had done so with such speed that they had pulled him out and then vanished so quickly he had not even seen them.

"You shouldn't have done that," came a voice from somewhere on the rooftop. "It was very dangerous."

"Dangerous?! I just saw a friggin' ghost crush some furry guy's head, and you think getting away from this place is dangerous?"

"No one here will hurt you. I promise you."

"Oh, and I'm just supposed to believe a mysterious voice on the roof?" William looked around. He wasn't even sure why the hell he'd come up this way, except that it always seemed to work in the movies. Now, he was trapped with an unknown being with no communicator and a really long fall in four directions. All he knew was that whoever was up there with him was female, based on her voice, and really damn fast.

"Yes. Think about it. If anyone had wished you harm, they could have done so easily by now."

"Not so easily," William shot back, trying to get some of his swagger back. "I'm a black belt in Taekwondo and --"

"Brown," Jenna said from the safety of her hiding spot, the word coming out before she could filter it. "You're a brown belt, not black."

William stopped. "How long have you people been spying on me? What the fuck is going on?"

"Language," Jenna replied.

"Language?" William scoffed. "What, you think you're my mother or something?"

Jenna froze in place. She knew it was just an expression, the typical response of a rebellious youth against any kind of authority. But it hurt her heart so much to hear him say it, particularly with such scorn and disregard. She slowly sank to a sitting position and put her face in her hands.

"If no one's going to hurt me, then why won't anyone explain what the hell is going on?" After receiving no response, he began to get a feeling that maybe he'd been abandoned on the roof. 'No,' he thought, 'She isn't going to have chased me all the way up here and then just leave me. Getting reinforcements maybe?' He laughed at the idea. Whoever this was would have no problems with him.

He began to look around the rooftop. "Hello?" For some reason, the idea of being left alone up there was almost worse than dealing with this phantom woman. "Are you going to explain what this is all about?"

Jenna fought to regain her composure, but another voice answered for her.

"I will," Nessa said, floating out of another duct. "You, young man, are a squirrelly little rascal. I like that," she added with a grin. She knew she had his undivided attention now.

"What the hell are you?" he asked, his eyes now fixed on the smoking hot, floating redhead that appeared in front of him.

"Me? I'm a major league babe with very few scruples and a wonky moral compass, but that's beside the point. I'm also the owner of this building and the boss of everyone in it. I will be your captor for the next few days, so if you have any questions . . . well, please direct them to my staff, since I'm really busy." Nessa looked around, then sniffed the air. "Are you coming out?" she asked, her voice softer than when talking to William.