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Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Fantasy
ISBN-10: 1499596960
Type: Fiction
Pages: 159
Copyright: May 27, 2014
ISBN-13: 9781499596960
When Bengt falls asleeep, Tian emerges, and vice versa. They encounter a plot to kill a baby, and wonder why the baby is so important.
When Bengt pushes Margit and her daughter Ivy out of the way of an oncoming car, he doesn’t realize it will embroil him in a secret worth killing for. Bengt doesn’t need any more secrets, deadly or not, because he has one of his own. He and Tian are a dual, two merged people. They already risk kidnapping by those who covet Tian’s magical ability to cure. They’re trying to find a way to live ordinary lives in the modern world, but "The Secret of Santua" will lead them to a few vampires, a were-chimpanzee, and someone who is trying to kill Ivy.
Excerpt
Chapter 1 BENGT
They didn’t finish the pizza. It took Bengt decades to change from wanting to save every bit of food to realizing food was plentiful and it could be thrown away, but it still bothered him slightly.
“Do you want a box for that?” the waiter asked, his voice revealing he was puzzled his two regular customers weren’t behaving as usual.
“No, thank you,” Bengt replied. “I’m not going directly home.”
“Yes you are,” Ashley said.
Bengt didn’t answer as he signed the check.
“You’re still planning to walk me to the Metro station,” she said. Her tone was something between a question and an accusation.
He didn’t respond, but put away his credit card, and stood up expectantly. She headed toward the door. He followed her into the heat of the late August evening. They walked the rapid pace of two young people who were in good shape. Although both were tired after a long day’s activity, the meal revived them.
“You’re from another century,” she said.
“How so?” he asked, amused at the accuracy of her statement, knowing she didn’t believe it.
“We just broke up. You would think you wouldn’t want to see me anymore.”
“We’ll see each other tomorrow at work,” he said. “How does that make you think I’m from another century? Which one?”
She thought about it. “Not the twentieth. Earlier. You’re chivalrous. Women should be protected. Actually, it’s a bit insulting.”
“That I still care enough not to want you hurt?”
“No,” she said with exasperation. “That you think I can’t defend myself. I teach karate, after all. You’ll have to walk home by yourself and are as much at risk as I am. Besides, this is an upscale neighborhood.”
“A woman is more likely to be a target than a man,” Bengt said. “Besides, I feel responsible.”
“You care about me enough to spend an extra half hour to see I get safely to the Metro station, but never spend the night.” Bengt could tell Ashley was just getting started. “You never take my phone calls during the morning. You won’t introduce me to your crazy old woman you live with.”
“Crazy?” Tian was one of the most sensible and sane people he ever met, and he met many people in five hundred years. It amused him that Ashley misunderstood her so completely.
“Yes. Crazy. I met her once.” Tian told Bengt about that. “I went to your apartment and told her I was sleeping with you. You know what she said? She said, ‘Good. Bengt is a healthy young male and should be having sex.’ That’s crazy.”
“Why?”
“She’s your foster mother. It should bother her.”
Bengt refrained from saying that Ashley’s behavior in coming to the apartment was sufficiently rude to elicit an unconventional response. He didn’t want to antagonize her further. “Well, it doesn’t. I’m eighteen,” he lied. “I’m glad my mother isn’t bothered by my behavior.”
“She’s not your mother, just your foster mother. You’re not in school and have a job. You could get an apartment.”
“No.” He wasn’t willing to explain why he and Tian couldn’t live apart.
“You’re admitting you’re a child. You’re just a child who can’t leave his mother, and she’s not even your real mother.”
He didn’t point out that she didn’t look very good if she thought she was sleeping with a child. Ostensibly, she was six years older than he was. They crossed MD 355, making it so there was only about five more minutes until he didn’t have to listen to her complaints. She spent those five minutes alternately taunting him for immaturity and complaining about him doing exactly what he said he would do when they first became intimate. He said he would never spend the night with her and always be home by one a.m.
He hoped letting her rant would minimize her resentment. They worked together and needed a certain rapport for it to go well. Bengt knew he baffled Ashley. He let her have her meaningless victory. He let her have the last word, sentence, and paragraph. Well, not quite. When she went through the turnstile, he said what he usually said when they parted, “Stay safe.”
He would retrace most of his steps going home. While exiting the Metro station, he saw a woman carrying a five or six month old baby who was fussing. He slowed down so he wouldn’t pass her and followed at a distance, wondering why she didn’t have a stroller. They were going the same direction he planned to go, but he discarded the idea of offering to carry the baby for her, since a responsible mother would refuse. They crossed the six lanes of MD 355, walked along King Farm Blvd and turned down a side street. If she once gave any sign she knew he was following her, he would have stopped, but people in this affluent neighborhood had strollers and he wondered what was going on. She crossed the street in the middle of the block, walking toward a parked car. Bengt heard an engine and saw a car without headlights accelerating toward them.
He might not have risked anything for a woman, especially one who walked in the middle of the street at night wearing dark clothing, but she was carrying a baby. Some people were too stupid to live, but the baby deserved to be saved. He leaped and pushed her between two vehicles, trusting her instincts to keep hold of the baby. She fell to the ground but Bengt wasn’t fast enough to avoid the car. He was thrown so his pant leg caught on something sticking out the back of a pickup truck that was parked there.
Normally, he rolled into falls, but his caught leg prevented that. He knew he was seriously injured, and the lack of feeling in his legs suggested a broken back. He knew he would heal, and was oddly grateful that he didn’t have to endure the pain his injuries should normally bring.
The woman and the baby were both screaming. The woman seemed more angry than hurt. A squeal of tires made Bengt wonder if the car was returning, but the screeching sound of brakes made him realize it was someone else. A man ran up to Bengt and took in the scene. Bengt wanted to tell him to try to release his leg, but felt consciousness leave him.
Chapter 2 TIAN
I woke up with my foot in the air, caught on something sticking out the back of a pickup truck. My body was lying on the ground with my long hair tangling in premature fall leaves. I was covered with blood. My general feeling of weakness told me it was Bengt’s blood. There was a man standing over me.
“What are you? Are you some kind of a Were?”
“Not really. Could you help me get out of this? My leg is caught.”
“You’re seriously hurt,” the man insisted.
“No. I healed, but am weak from the healing and the blood loss. It’s a bit awkward, but I suppose I could take off my pants.” I reached to unbuckle the belt Bengt insisted on wearing.
“No. I’ll tear the fabric.” He tried to do it, but didn’t succeed. “Wait. Don’t be frightened. I won’t hurt you.” He changed into a chimpanzee. I never heard of a Were-chimpanzee before and never saw a Were-anything change so casually. Ludicrously, his pants fell to his ankles, leaving his shirt covering down to his knees. I was too fascinated to be afraid. I realized his warning was intended to reassure me that the chimpanzee was harmless. He reached for the jeans I was wearing and unsuccessfully tried tearing them. He put his mouth on the bloodstained denim, carefully avoiding biting me. With hands and teeth, he soon had my leg free. He hadn’t moved his feet, keeping his shoes on.
He pulled up his pants and changed back into a human. He spent about a minute readjusting his clothing. Meanwhile, I shakily made it to my feet, grabbing the truck to pull myself up.
“The other people saw a blond man,” he said. “If you’re well enough to leave, my car is over there.”
He held out an arm with old fashioned courtesy, which I took, since I was weak and needed steadying. When we emerged from behind the truck I saw an elderly couple standing near a woman who was sitting on the grass nursing a baby. “What happened to the man who pushed me?” the woman asked.
“There was a blond man who left,” I said.
“He’s all right then?” asked the elderly woman. “He pushed her out of the way of the car. He may have saved her life. I thought the car hit him.”
The elderly man with her said, “I couldn’t get a license number, but that car was running without lights and too fast for a neighborhood street. I took a picture of the blond man saving the woman.” He gestured with his cell phone to the woman on the grass. I wasn’t happy Bengt’s picture was taken, even if it was when he was being heroic.
The Were-chimpanzee, now in human form, said, “Make sure the paramedics check the mother and baby.” A siren was coming closer. He opened the door of a car whose motor was running. We both climbed in and headed down the narrow street. A police car drove up, but we were already on our way.
“They look all right,” I said. “The mother and baby.”
“I hope so. Where should I take you?” When I didn’t respond immediately, he said, “And I’m not going to drop you off at a corner. I’m going in with you and want to see you really are all right.”
I gave him my address. I leaned back in the car and rested, but I didn’t want to fall asleep or Bengt would emerge. The change took energy, and I needed to eat to get my strength back. “I’m afraid I’m getting blood all over your car,” I said.
“It’s not important. I’m Darcy Collins, a Were-chimpanzee, which you probably guessed. What kind of OWC are you?”
OWC meant otherworldly creature. Some people called us Other Worldly Creature from Hell or OWCH, pronounced ouch. “Tian Meng.” He reacted to my name with a slight jerk, but I wasn’t certain what the reaction meant. “I’m a dual. Two people, one body that switches between the two.” I needed to explain, because duals weren’t generally known. “We’ve kept our existence secret.” The Weres and vampires, as well as a few witches and fae, went public a few years ago. Many OWC were still in hiding, but those that went public were making a great effort to show they were either beneficial or at least harmless.
“By ‘we’ do you mean you and the man, or you and other duals?”
“I don’t know any other duals.”
“Were you born that way? It’s an odd combination.”
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