Page 31 of Wanderer

“He was with me, Tatsuya. Sorry about that. We’ll be there soon.” In my shock, Riley took the phone from me and ended the call.

“What?” I scrambled to get out of bed and follow Riley as he made his way to the bathroom and started the water for a shower. “We? Are you coming with me?”

Riley got under the spray, pulled the curtain back, and beckoned me. “Of course I am. I’ve still got a lot to tell you, and we aren’t going to waste a day apart, are we?”

With a grin, I joined him in the shower.

Fifteen

Gareth

Greyhaven was already busy with people wandering about, others dashing from place to place, their arms laden with items for the parade and fair. The air was crisp with the threat of snow, dark clouds gathering, ready to dump on us. Snow would be useful in cutting down the magic needed for parts of the parade, but I prayed it would hold off until later. We still had a couple of hours before the festivities began. The parade itself wasn’t until late afternoon, taking advantage of the short daylight hours.

“Woah!” Riley’s eyes were lit with happiness as he scanned the busy street and all the decorations helpers were hanging all over.

“Right?”

“I’ve never been to a parade. When we were hiding, we didn’t want to do anything to stand out, and when Boyce came along, he was too busy showing Mom off in other ways.”

“Other ways?” Nothing about that sounded good.

“Like I said, he was good at first. Treated Mom to expensive dinners, took her on elaborate dates. He dropped a lot of money on me too. Buying me all sorts of shit and even letting me drive his sports car. We didn’t know he was keeping track of everything we owed him.”

“Riley—”

“I’m okay, I swear.” He paused and looked around him at everyone working hard to pull the event together. “It’s easier to talk about it here, somewhere so far away and different from anything I had while in his clutches. This… all of this is so pure and wholesome. The opposite of what we had.”

Riley tugged on my gloved hand, pulling me closer to him.

“So, as I was saying last night. Boyce impressed my mom, and soon after they started dating, we moved into his big house. It all started inconspicuously. Boyce knew what we were straight away, so we didn’t have to hide. I could shift freely, and I did. A lot. Like all the damn time. It was so freeing, y’know?”

I nodded, but stayed silent, letting him tell his story.

“We learned later on that he’d been tracking us for a while. Actively hunting for us. He’d waited for us to let our guard down, thinking we were safe before he approached Mom. Boyce never hid what he was either. It started with requests for me to shift into things so he could have a feather for a spell, or shit like that. He tested my range. What I could shift into. Showed me a bunch of animals I’d never seen before, just so I could practice. We bonded over it. That was what got me later. I thought he respected me, cared about me.”

Riley let out a bitter laugh and held on to me tighter.

“He got bored with Pax pretty quickly until he figured out how strong Pax is. Physically, I mean. He can hold a single form longer than I can too. I think that’s the wolf in him.” I let go of his hand to wrap my arm around him, and his expression shifted as he closed in on himself, shying away from a rough memory. “Mom changed.” The word didn’t cover the entirety of what he was recalling. He skirted it as if it still hurt to think about it too closely. “It was just little things. Always tired. Her shifts would take longer. Then I noticed the bruises.”

“Fuck!” I couldn’t hold it back.

Riley gave a humorless laugh. “That wasn’t the worst of it. I noticed this weird scent around her a couple of weeks later. Then the fang marks appeared. They weren’t even hiding it. Fuckers were always taking a little too much, so her shifter healing didn’t kick in. Or if she pissed Boyce off by not being accommodating, he repressed her healing with magic.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. I heard him once. He offered me to them instead of her, but she refused. My mom bore it so I wouldn’t be given to his vampire friends as a walking blood bag. Instead, he had me breaking into places. He said I needed to pay my way. Pay for my upkeep, for all the things that he’d given me. Again, he had asked a favor to start with. Said they’d cheated him out of something, or a rival had stolen it. So I stole things for him. The other reason why metamorphs hide. We can shift into pretty much anything. Mice can get around security. Bats can fly around sensors. Metamorphs are almost always exploited in some way.”

“I… uh… fuck… Riley, that’s just… I don’t even know what to say.”

“Just answer me this. Do you still want to be with me, knowing that I’ve had to lie, cheat, and steal to protect myself and my family? And that sometimes I enjoyed it?”

“Of course! I think it’s understandable that you’d learn to like it. Probably kept you sane, made you feel powerful when you were powerless at home.”

He stopped our progression just outside the diner where Tatsuya was waiting for us and brushed his lips over mine. “Thank you.”

We shared a smile. Despite the cold, I felt all warm inside. I led him into the diner and over to my friend. Tatsuya’s eyes flashed with his dragon as we approached, our hands still entwined.

“I’d heard rumors that you two were talking, but not this. Are congratulations in order?” Tatsuya’s voice was carefully neutral, but I saw the tension in how he held himself and around his mouth.