Simi bit her lip as she debated if she should tell akri-Thorn what she knew. Cherise’s son, Nick Gautier, was the Malachai they were all looking for.
Only Nick’s granddaddy had restricted his powers and shushed his memories and replaced them with others. Nick had no idea who or what he was.
At least not yet.
No one was exactly sure how Nick would react once his memories came back, either. They were hoping for the best. But when dealing with a Malachai …
Sometimes things went wonky.
“What about her, Simi?”
“She the mother of Kyrian’s Squire, Nick.”
“Oh … no, I had no idea. Really?”
Simi glanced over to where Cherise was talking to a couple in a booth, then whispered, “But she don’t know about us. Shh!” She placed her finger to her lips. “Nicky don’t want anyone to tell her about our world.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for the warning.” He patted her on the arm and walked off to keep his meeting.
Simi watched Thorny go until she saw Nick playing pool in the back with the tigerwere … Wren. They did that a lot. Mostly ’cause Wren didn’t interact with anyone other than the monkey, Marvin, that was sitting on Wren’s shoulder while he played.
It kind of hurt her tender feelings that Nick didn’t remember their friendship. But she understood. Sometimes it was necessary to put the welfare of others above even the Simi’s.
She also caught sight of Nicky’s granddaddy, Xev, in the shadows were he and his brother Caleb kept watch over their charge to make sure no one unwrapped their bindings on Nick’s Malachai powers. Though that sounded quite painful to the Simi. She wouldn’t want anyone to keep those kinds of secrets from her.
Or to restrict her powers.
They’d all gone through a lot together. The only thing that made it worthwhile was that she knew they’d be together again.
The whole merry fun crew.
She couldn’t wait for that day. Because honestly, she missed her friends, and she would love to have them back.
22
August 18, 2004
“You’ve been keeping secrets, Thorny-man!”
Thorn jumped at the sound of Simi’s voice. “Shit, Sim! Little warning please.” He was on the curb outside of Karma Devereaux’s house where he’d just dropped off a present.
Simi’s eyes glowed a faint red in the darkness as she glanced to the shotgun house behind him. “You got another little boy…”
“Shh!” Thorn gestured for her to keep her tone low. “Tell no one, Sim. I don’t want him to grow up like Cadegan did.” Hated by others and persecuted. He wanted to give E.T. a chance at a normal life. “Karma knows I’m not human, and she’s okay with that.”
“You love her?”
“What? No. No! It was a one-time thing that just kind of happened. I’m still not really sure how.” He’d been in town to check on his people when she’d shown up at Sanctuary. They’d exchanged some witty repartee and the next thing he’d known …
Yeah, the encounter had been a mistake, but he’d never regret his kid.
Thankfully, Karma felt the same way he did.
“I had no idea she’d get pregnant and neither did she. E.T. thinks I’m her friend and he calls me Uncle. I’m good with that.” At least sort of.
To be honest, he’d rather be a father to the boy, but given that E.T. was part human, it wasn’t worth the risk. Thorn had too many enemies who would use his son to get back at him.
Even though E.T. was still a toddler, he had yet to show any signs of having powers. Which meant the boy might never be able to protect himself from those who wanted to strike back at Thorn.
