Dashing Devil 9: Immortal's Intent, page 35
Trying to be cool about it, Connor surreptitiously turned to check them out again—and felt his own eyes go wide when he realized they were watching him. His gaze met first one set of green eyes, then another, before darting back to the first. He whipped his head back around. He’d turned back around not so much out of embarrassment, as it was to avoid making them uncomfortable.
Part of him wanted to be in the big group at the front or the twos and threes that trailed behind it, chatting away with the other kids and looking for a friend or two, but he was following Boyd’s advice. His big demon friend had several words of wisdom when Connor had asked how to get everyone to like him.
Connor was excited that being at the new school meant he didn’t have to hide being Boyd’s brother-in-law and friend, but he was also a little worried that telling anyone about it would make him sound like he was bragging. And no one liked a braggart.
“It’s everyone’s first day, and very few of your classmates will know each other,” Boyd had advised. “The best thing you can do at first is to keep your mouth shut and your ears open. Learn what you can about your classmates—what they like and dislike. That way, you’ll know what to talk to them about when you decide who you want to be friends with.”
“What should I say to them?” Connor had asked.
“Be polite and answer questions about yourself but keep those answers brief and try to redirect the focus of the conversation back to them at first. It will help make you seem modest, which people like, and confident, which you should be. They’ll like you either way, buddy, but people like modest people better… so try to be casual when talking about me.”
Boyd had explained what that meant, and even practiced the technique with him a few times—which was good, because he found he had to put the advice into practice sooner than anticipated.
“Hey!” The word was accompanied by three taps on his shoulder. “You told the blonde girl your name is Connor earlier, right?”
Connor turned to look over his shoulder and found both of the twins walking right behind him. They were leaning forward so their faces were close together. It made their twin-ness super obvious.
The boy jerked back and trotted forward a quick couple of steps in an attempt to put some distance between them before turning around. But the twins had followed him, and he only gained a few extra inches of personal space.
“Hi, Connor!” said the twin on the left, though since he’d turned around to face them, she was now on his right.
“Hi, Connor,” said the other.
They both giggled like birds arguing over territory. The girls walked by pivoting their hips slightly outward, knees bent to keep their steps perfectly matched, and they were still holding hands.
Connor had never seen twins before, but he was ninety-nine percent sure they didn’t have to hold hands all the time. That last one percent of uncertainty lent a weird sense of pressure to the conversation. He didn’t know what to do with his hands.
“Uh, hi,” he said, which sounded even more generic than he’d meant it to. “I’m Connor. Like you said.”
“I’m Ray,” said the left twin. “And this is Ree.”
Ree raised her hand in a tiny wave but didn’t say anything. They wore matching woven bracelets in different colors: Ray’s was red, Ree’s blue.
“You wouldn’t happen to be Connor Baker, would you? The one who knows Crimson Paw? Though I guess you’d call him Dashing Devil.”
“I know him by both names, and others,” he admitted.
Connor was thrilled he had a chance to use that line so early. He’d have to thank Daryl the next time he saw him—that line was one the snake man had suggested. Boyd had told him to just let people use whatever name they wanted for him, so he saw no harm in it.
Not wanting to fall too far behind, he tried to walk beside Ree. “I’m pretty much his brother-in-law.”
“Awesome!” Ray said. She was evidently the talker of the two.
The twins turned to face him, walking sideways in a way that he was certain would cause them to trip over each other. They must have practiced a lot, though, because they didn’t.
“We’re kind of sort of his nieces… but not really, because our family can be pretty backwards about some things and messed it up. We were hoping you could get a message to our Aunt Sinoe for us… Or Nymph… or whatever you know Crimson Paw’s mountain nymph wife by. Tell her Ray and Ree are sorry for how our family treated her and Uncle Silas. Lilith said you could do it if we found you, and well…” Ray smirked. “She’s Lilith, so don’t bother pretending that you can’t after she said you could.”
“What are lady satyrs called?” Connor skipped the ‘answer questions about yourself’ step and went right to ‘redirect the focus of the conversation back to them’. He realized his mistake the moment the words left his mouth, but he was still proud of himself for being able to formulate the question. He was also glad he had begged to go with Boyd and Sinoe one of the times she went out to tend Silas’s grave.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have known what a satyr was.
“Fauns,” Ree answered, while Ray scowled at him. “We like to be called fauns.”
“Can you get our message to Aunt Sinoe or not?” Ray pressed.
“I mean, telling her would be easy…”
Connor considered if he should just tell them, then he put his best knowing smirk on in hopes of enacting another piece of Boyd’s advice. His big friend had explained that no one liked the guy who spoiled surprises, but almost everyone wanted to get closer to a guy they thought saw them coming.
“But you won’t need me to.”
The twins exchanged a glance, their cheeks almost touching, given the way they leaned towards each other. Connor wondered if they ever thought of themselves as two people, or if it was more like they were a single person in stereo.
Ray asked, “How do you mean?”
Connor shrugged, keeping his own smirk muted so as not to overplay the move. Then he mimed zipping his lips and tossing away the key.
Ray’s eyes narrowed at him, searching for the trick, but Ree looked faintly impressed, maybe even a little relieved. Connor didn’t know what to do with that, so he just shrugged, jammed his hands into his pockets, and shuffled down the steps after the main group.
Ray, ever the committee chair of their dyad, broke the short silence. “Sinoe’s going to be here?” Her voice rose an octave in nervous excitement.
Connor had already zipped his lips, so he just shrugged again.
Suddenly, a hand clamped down on his shoulder and tried to pull him back around as he followed the group out onto the lawn.
Chapter 38
“Hey!”
Connor clamped down on his assailant’s wrist, and he pulled on it to flip them over his shoulder. He spun, twisting to step close and turn his hip into theirs—or at least he tried to. His grab got turned on him, and he had to twist and duck to shed it before going for a second grip.
He tried to push his assailant back while slipping his leg behind theirs to trip them. That attempt was avoided as the other person hopped over his leg. The next thing he knew, as Connor started to spin around, he was shoved away from his assailant.
He jumped back into the defensive stance Weapon Master had drilled into him, then blinked in surprise. He’d expected it to be Ray, the bolder of the twins. Instead, he found himself facing a different girl. One of the PAC kids.
She had black hair that had been covering her face for most of the day, but it currently fell back to expose a pretty, if slightly sharp featured face. Her nose was long and a little hooked, but her eyes were a shade of grey so light they could give his sister’s a run for their credits. Their almond shape was stretched wide at the moment, and Connor could swear he saw a blend of surprise and apology in them.
She had on a baggy black t-shirt. Its short sleeves swayed as she patted the air between them with gloved hands. She wore a pair of dark jeans that had been cut, torn, and drawn on with permanent marker. It looked like she’d taken the marker to her skin too, drawing strange letters that looked like glyphs you might see in a fantasy movie on her arms and showing through the rips of her jeans.
Connor let his arms drop back to his sides from where they had come up between them. He was confused. Why had she grabbed him like that?
He repeated his thoughts out loud. “Why’d you grab me like that?!”
The girl who’d grabbed his shoulder frowned. She held up her forearm and the strange glyph-like characters on them shifted, becoming smoky under her skin before flowing into easily legibly words in a curly looking font.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ don’t talk—not out loud.’
“Oh,” Connor blinked, then smiled as he fully relaxed. “That’s alright then, but maybe just a tap next time you need to get my attention, okay?” He rubbed his wrist where she’d reversed his hold.
‘I didn’t expect you to react so fast.’
He noticed that the girl held her arm in a way that covered her nose, but not her eyes.
‘You’re better trained than you look.’
“Uh… Thanks?” Connor shrugged. “I’ve had some training—mostly for emergencies—but I’m not nearly as well trained as you. I’m Connor, nice to meet you.”
‘They call me Hex.’
The writing once again appeared on her arm.
‘Nice to meet you. Do you really know The Devoted?’
Her grey eyes burned with interest.
Glancing over her shoulder reveled that Connor had the undivided attention of the faun twins, the rock guy, and the other four PAC kids. Half turning around, he looked the way they’d been going and found that their group was getting further away. If they didn’t get moving again, they might miss the big surprise.
“Come on, walk beside me where I can see your arm.” Connor waved Hex forward.
She jogged up to walk on his right, holding out her left arm while Ree and Ray came up on his right. Glancing over his shoulder again showed him that the others were all still trailing behind, but were a few paces closer now. Connor turned back around to face forward and ran through all of Boyd’s advice he could remember.
Be polite…
Answer questions, but keep those answers brief…
Redirect the focus of the conversation back to them…
Be modest…
And, be confident.
Ultimately, he decided to keep it simple. “Yes, I know The Devoted,” he replied. “I’ve lived with them off and on and even trained with them a little. My sister was their base support before she became their secret second Handler. But she’s not going to be kept a secret anymore. Did you have a message for one of them?”
Hex angled her arm, lifting it in a way that looked like it should have been uncomfortable but didn’t seem to bother her.
‘I want to meet Mind Witch.’
“Okay… Are you a Mind Powered like her?” he asked.
Hex frowned at him, before shaking her head.
‘I’m not a Mind Powered.’
‘Can you introduce me to her?’
‘I REALLY need to meet Mind Witch.’
Connor lifted his chin in a nod that displayed comprehension but lacked any form of commitment. He could tell her that he could introduce her to Mindy, but he knew she would be meeting the pretty goth Hero soon—real soon. He fought to keep a grin off his face.
Being mysterious and knowing was harder than it sounded. He really wanted to tell her.
‘SOON.’
While she didn’t go so far as using an exclamation point or anything, the all caps made it seem like her request was urgent.
‘Oh! The poor dear.’ Mindy’s voice suddenly sounded in his head.
Connor couldn’t help flinching. The pretty Mind Powered Hero didn’t pop into his head enough for him to be used to it. Then he remembered she could read his thoughts… which meant she knew he’d just thought she was pretty.
‘Ah… Um… Mindy?’ he thought back at her.
‘Kuh-he!’ Mindy giggled. ‘Thank you for the compliment, Connor. Every girl likes to hear that she’s pretty.’
‘All the Devoted are pretty!’ Connor was flustered. ‘All the girls, I mean. Boyd and Daryl aren’t pretty.’
‘Kuh-he-he-he!’ Mindy laughed. ‘I won’t tease you. Please tell your new friend Hex not to worry, and that you’ll make sure she meets me. We can get her the help she needs. I’ll set up the rest with Boyd.’
Hex stared at him and shook her arm, the text on it growing in size. This time, she used an exclamation point.
‘SOON!’
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get to meet Mind Witch. She’ll get you the help you need,” Connor repeated. He tried to get the delivery right while keeping a grin off his face. He didn’t want Hex to think he was making fun of her.
The look on Hex’s face—somewhere between calculation and worry—seemed to relax a notch.
‘How did you meet the Devoted?’
Connor rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah…”
He didn’t want to admit Boyd had caught him pick pocketing. “Dashing Devil saved me and my sister from some fundamentalist idiots. When he learned she’d lost her job, he offered her a position as their base support. She started working for them, and I became friends with Boyd… err… Dashing Devil. That was right before they moved out here.”
That wasn’t really the order in which things had happened… but nothing he’d said was a lie.
Hex nodded, satisfied with his response, and let her forearm drop. The dark ink seemed to relax, spreading into meaningless whorls between her wrist and elbow. She didn’t say anything else, though Connor noticed her glancing at him, at his hands, at the sway of his arms, like she was breaking him down and putting him back together in her head.
The twins didn’t miss a beat. Ray took over like his conversation with Hex had included them all along. “That’s cool that you know the Devoted! You even said you got to train with them. Are you part of the Hero-Warden Program? We are!”
When she’d said the last bit, she’d leaned in close, her voice pitched low. Ray had a way of putting herself right in his personal space—as if the nearness of someone else’s face, close enough to feel the warmth of her breath, was the only honest way to talk.
“Ah… no, sorry.” Connor shook his head and found it easy not to frown about it for once. He couldn’t complain about his lot in life these days. “I’m unPowered. I haven’t really had much training—just enough for emergencies.”
Hex turned and gave him an incredulous look.
“What she said!” Ray hooked a thumb at Hex and giggled. “That exchange of grips wasn’t ‘for emergency’ training.”
Connor shrugged, then repeated one of the lessons Gus had not-quite-beaten into him. “Un-Powered have to be prepared for all sorts of things you Powered might not think of or worry about. I have to be ten times as prepared as you do if I want to have half the chance to survive that you do in most emergencies.”
All three of the girls who were walking in a line with him leaned forward to stare at him. More than one set of brows came together over green or gray eyes, and he once again felt like he was being put under a microscope. He’d seen that same look on his sister’s face or the faces of the other Devoted before—usually when his big demon friend said something profound.
Being mysterious was harder than he thought it would be, but it was already paying off. Now, he just had to keep his mouth shut for long enough to sell it. That reminded him that he’d forgotten a step.
The redirect.
Nodding to Hex, Connor added, “But let’s be honest, you could have torn me apart back there.” He tried to give one of Boyd’s single-shoulder shrugs. “Thanks for not doing that.” He gave her the crooked grin Daisy had said made him look charming.
When she raised a dark eyebrow, he explained. “I don’t want to call anyone out or anything, but I can tell where you came from. And I know just how much training that means you’ve had… even if you’re Power isn’t physical.”
It was Hex’s turn to incline her chin in comprehension without a direct acknowledgement.
Then a shadow passed over them, and her eyes shot skyward. Connor’s gaze was only a beat behind her. Boyd, Hope, and Kayla flew overhead in formation, Raev and Laura trailing behind them on Grav Bikes, with Tinker in her latest suit forming the back of a long diamond formation.
“The Devoted!” most of the kids in the group they’d almost caught up to shouted at the same time. The teachers tried to regain control of the group before everyone just rushed to where the Heroes were landing.
Giggles that sounded like the chiming of bells sounded and then a familiar bubbly voice gushed, “Hello! Nice to meet you! Happy first day of school!”
Conner pulled his gaze back to the main group of students where he now saw Silvie. She blurred about, stopping for just long enough right in front of them to beam, chirp a “Welcome!” and wave at each student. The kid would jump in surprise but grin a second or two after she blurred to the next student and call a greeting after her.
Boyd, Hope and Kayla were stepping forward with Tinker as Raev and Laura dismounted and tethered their grav bikes. The whole group were pointing and calling out to their favorite Hero. Then the ground in front of everyone opened up and Sinoe, Mindy, and Stepper emerged from the hole, free of dirt.
Claws dug into Connor’s wrist and he let out a hiss, his left hand once again closing around Hex’s as he turned a look of surprised betrayal on her. Sure, he’d only known her for a few minutes and hadn’t built much in the way of trust, but he sort of trusted everyone not to sink their claws into him on principle.
But her eyes were locked on Mindy as she tilted slightly too and frow to track the tall goth Hero as she made her way through the crowd.
The words ‘A pretty witch!’ appeared again and again—on both arms, and even on her forehead.
Chapter 39
Boyd stood in the cargo bay of the Osprey.
