"Who are they?" Thaddeus asked, his gaze flicking to Chami and Gryphon.
How to answer? Guard. Lover. "They are special friends who live with me… along with six others." I paused, helpless, unsure of what else to say. "Do you still wish to know more?"
"You were there the other day. Outside my house," Thaddeus said suddenly.
"Why… yes."
At my admission, hot emotion darkened his eyes… triumph or relief, perhaps. I felt a brief flare of power so quickly reined in that I would have thought I'd imagined it but for the fact that Chami and Gryphon instantly moved forward to my side.
"He is like you," Gryphon said in a low voice. "More."
Another brief spurt of energy emanated from Thaddeus.
My brother had an amazing ability to shield or suppress his power, I realized, that cracked only when he felt strong emotions.
"Release your control, Thaddeus," I said quietly. "Let me reel you."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
I searched those eyes so like mine and wondered if he spoke true. Did Thaddeus really not know what he did? Did his power scare him so much that he was in denial? Or was it an unconscious suppression?
"Are there things different about you from other people?" I asked gently. "Can you hear things, see things others can't? jump farther, run faster? See better at night? Are you stronger than others?"
"How did you know?" Thaddeus whispered shakily.
"Because I'm the same way, as are Gryphon and Chami here."
Thaddeus expelled a trembling breath. "I thought I was going crazy these past several months. That maybe insanity ran in my genes. I'd always had an active imagination."
"No, it's very real," I assured him. "Insanity doesn't run in our blood," — at least I hoped it didn't—"but other things do. From the time I could remember, I was a little quicker, faster, stronger than others. Just slightly enough for it to pass as advanced physical development when I was young. But the abilities grew and blossomed beyond the point where they could be considered normal when I hit puberty at thirteen. I reached puberty later than other girls."
Thaddeus didn't say anything, just listened to me with hard attention.
"I always knew I was different, but never why until I met others like me a couple of weeks ago. Since then, my whole world has changed into one that is much more dangerous and deadly. But I have never been happier." I hesitated. "Do you want to know, really know, what you are?"
"What, not who," Thaddeus observed dispassionately. "Why were you outside my house?"
"I'd just discovered where you lived. I wanted to see if you were well."
"Why did you leave without making yourself known to me?"
"You were well, happy, loved. There was no need to disrupt your life."
"I was loved but not well. Not mentally," Thaddeus said. "And yes, I would like to know."
And so I told him. About the Monère, about Full Bloods and Mixed Bloods.
"You can shift into animal form?" Thaddeus asked, natural skepticism warring with a desire to believe.
I smiled. "Only some of us. I do not possess that ability, though Gryphon does."
Locking his eyes on Gryphon, Thaddeus demanded, "Show me."
"It would be easier to allow Chami to demonstrate his gift," I said, turning to the slender man beside me. "If you don't mind, Chami."
Chami grinned, bringing a wolfish cast to his sharp features. "Not at all, milady," he said and disappeared.
"Holy shit!" Thaddeus exclaimed, his face pale.
Chami reappeared and bowed with a flourish like an actor on stage.
"Thank you, Chameleo," I said, my lips twitching.
Thaddeus came to an abrupt decision. "Get me out of here."
"How long did the doctors want to keep you?" I asked cautiously.
"There's nothing wrong with me but for a broken arm and a mild concussion. They're only keeping me overnight because there was no one to observe me at home for twenty-four hours. They're getting a social worker involved tomorrow," Thaddeus said quietly.
That decided it. It would be much easier keeping him out of the system in the first place rather than trying to extricate him out of it later.
"You may have to sign out against medical advice," I warned.
"No," Thaddeus corrected. "As my sister and closest of kin, you will. You're over twenty-one, right?"
"I am twenty-one."
"Good enough," Thaddeus declared and depressed the call button to summon a nurse.
"Would you like to come live with me in New Orleans?" I asked.
"Come with me to my home," Thaddeus invited. "Let me spent the next few days with you and your other 'special friends' before I decide."
"All of them?" I asked.
Thaddeus nodded. "Yes. I'd like to meet them."
"All right," I agreed, liking his caution, wanting the opportunity to know this intelligent young man better.
"It's the full moon tomorrow," Gryphon reminded me quietly.
"Yes, I know. Even more reason," I said, remembering the thick woods behind Thaddeus's house.
A young nurse entered the room. "Did you need anything?" she inquired.
"Yes," I replied, taking charge. "I'm Thaddeus's sister. I'd like to sign him out of the hospital and take him home now."
"Oh. I didn't know he had a sister." Her forehead furrowed together in a frown. "I'll have to call Dr. Smith and let him know."
After her departure, I told Thaddeus, "I'll be right back. I need to call the others."
"No need," Thaddeus said. Reaching over into his bedside drawer, he handed me a cell phone.
He had to show me how to use it. I'd never had one. Why should I? There'd been no one for me to call before.
Aquila answered on the second ring and I explained the situation to him. "Pack up everything and check out of the hotel. We'll be staying with my brother." I gave him Thaddeus's address and telephone number, and after a brief aside to Thaddeus, his cell phone number as well.
"How old are the others?" Thaddeus asked curiously after I handed the cell phone back to him.
"Aquila and Tomas are much older than you and I. But Jamie is nineteen and his sister, Tersa, is twenty-four. They're Mixed Bloods like us, but more like humans. We're three-quarters Monère, only a quarter human. You'll meet them and their mother, Rosemary, later. "
A gray-haired doctor entered the room, brusque and abrupt. "I've got to get back to an admission in the ER," he said to me. "What's this about you claiming to be my patient's sister? He told me quite plainly this morning that he had no other family."
The doctor eyed Gryphon and Chami with frank suspicion and didn't look too kindly upon me, either, despite my most winsome smile.
"I'm his half sister. We share the same father. Different mothers. That's why he didn't think to call me until later," I told him, concentrating fiercely on appearing trustworthy to the bristling doctor.
"So he hardly knows you," Dr. Smith said, shaking his head.
"Sorry. I'm not going to let a near-stranger waltz out with my patient even if you are who you claim you are. You can deal with the social worker tomorrow."
I was in front of him before he could turn to go, capturing him with my eyes. "You see no reason why Thaddeus cannot leave under my care," I murmured as my power strummed the air.
"I see no reason why Thaddeus cannot leave under your care," Dr. Smith repeated obediently.
"I am an experienced nurse and can monitor him just as well at home." I said.
The doctor parroted, "You're an experienced nurse and can monitor him just as well at home."
My voice was a low, hypnotic whisper. "You feel happy and reassured that your young patient has family who will take care of him, and will go sign the orders immediately for his discharge." I released him.
Dr. Smith blinked and smiled at us. "I'll go and take care of the orders right now. The nurse will give you the rest of the instructions and sign you out. Make sure you follow up in one week with an orthopedist to ensure that the arm is healing well. Good luck, young man." He strode from the room.