Imperfect Creatures, page 10
“I would never get away with talking to my father that way.”
“I somehow doubt granddad would approve of how you acted as a parent.”
With a slow and level tone, Dylan spoke with a pace that would be normal for Rebecca. “They’re my kids, Becca. What right do you have to stop me from seeing them?”
“I’m their guardian!” Her voice was loud, but she lowered it, speaking slower through gritted teeth. “Look, Dad. I want you to be a part of their life; you know I do. God knows they need a father. But that is what they need, not a man who swings by whenever he feels up to it. They—we—need someone who will be there. If you want to see them, then you need to promise me now. You can’t do what you did four years ago. You have to commit to the kids you abandoned. Then we can have dinner as a family. But you need to commit.”
“It’s not that easy, Becca. I have my own problems. I can’t just be there when you’re feeling sad.”
It felt like a partial explosion, like a dash of hope was shot and Rebecca went straight to angry. “You need to be there when it’s tough or you don’t have the right to call yourself their father. That’s what I’ve had to do. God, do you realise how much responsibility I’ve had to take up because of you? The hell they went through? Because you wouldn’t raise your kids.”
“You missed the first fourteen years of their upbringing, coming in once the hard work was done. And you want to talk to me about responsibility?”
“Done? Done!” Rebecca’s voice was becoming less human and more banshee. “What part of this is easy? What part of balancing the job I didn’t want with taking care of them is easy? What part of cooking for three every day is easy? What part of my life is easy, taking care of others when I was struggling to take care of myself?”
His voice was starting to rise, but Dylan’s voice was still relatively calm. “I tried helping you.”
“You tried two years ago! A whole two years after I found them!”
“Well, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Becca. Is that what you wanted to hear? I’m sorry you can’t be a carefree hippy anymore, partying every other night and getting high on gems. I’m sorry your life isn’t a breeze, but you know what? Neither is mine. So, I am sorry I wasn’t there to hold your hand and help you out as an adult. And now you want to complain when you wouldn’t let me come back? How is that fair?”
“How dare you! You saw me every other weekend. Don’t act like you know me. I always assumed that was a custody thing, but now I know Mum wanted you to be a part of my life. So what, did you have to ask to not have custody when every other father is out there begging for more? And now you want to complain about me, that I won’t just give to you what you abandoned? Do you even have any concept of what they went through because of you, because of your inability to front up and take responsibility for getting their mother pregnant? What on earth makes you think you deserve to be involved in their lives?”
Finally, his voice raised into a shout. “Because I am their father. Just like I am yours.”
She scoffed loudly. “Some father you turned out to be.”
The sounds of movement died away. When he spoke again, his voice was softer. “What happened to us? You used to love catching up on holidays and birthdays. Why can’t I have that with my other kids, with you anymore?”
It was as if she was matching his vocal change but in the opposite direction, and Allison began counting the seconds until one of their neighbours came out. “What kind of conceited jackass are you, acting as if you deserve it? Mum has been there for them more than you have, and they’re not even related. Hell, you’re still calling me Becca! No one’s called me that in years, but you’re too bloody absent to even know that.”
“Calm down, Becca. You’re causing a scene.”
The raging curiosity battled inside her, pushing Allison to lean forward and peer through the blinds. It was just enough for her to see through, not enough even for her eyes to be seen. She saw only his back, facing Rebeca as she stood on the driveway in front of a police cruiser. A part of Allison never believed it when she was told her father was an officer. Even with her permanently rosy cheeks, Rebecca’s face lit up in a whole different way. “Don’t you dare tell me to calm down! You sent my siblings off to live as child soldiers! You have no right to tell me anything.”
Dylan wasn’t responding, but she could hear his heavy breathing. He stepped closer to her sister. “I didn’t know.”
Rebecca’s anger hadn’t died down enough for her to laugh; it just twisted it into something hateful. “That’s bull and you know it.”
This time he got louder. “I swear Rebecca. I didn’t know. I went to a church because I thought that would give them a better chance than being with a single parent on a government salary. I thought it would keep them safe. I had no clue what was going to happen.”
“You just didn’t care. Thousands of people get stuck with a child alone, be it through an unwanted pregnancy or their partner dying or whatever. And they don’t trade those kids in for an easy ride. They stick with it and raise their kids.”
“I was doing what was best for them!” Dylan roared. “You know what happens to those kids with single parents? I end up arresting half of them. For killing the other half.”
Allison almost didn’t want to look, convinced her sister had become a banshee.
“Screw you!” Rebecca’s chest heaved with shallow breaths at a rapid pace. If her head wasn’t going light yet, it would be soon. She seemed to realise that too, forcing herself to quiet down but maintaining every drop of venom. “I know having a single parent is bad. I went through that until Mum remarried. But it sure as hell is better than none.”
Dylan was frozen, struck motionless with no response. Without thinking, Allison leaned in closer, pushing the blinds apart with her forehead. The movement catching her eye, Rebecca turned towards her. It was only for a moment, but it was enough that Dylan noticed. Seeing where she was looking, he spun around and rushed over the garden. Dropping the blinds, Allison retreated into the room, the outside once again nothing but thin slits of light that morphed around his shape. “Kids! Kids, come out and let me see you. I want to see how much you’ve grown.”
In four years, through thick and thin—rain, hail, or shine—Rebecca always maintained a certain calmness. Even when she was fired up and angry with them after realising they were sneaking off to do mixed martial arts, her tone was always at a normal level. Now that was all being blown apart in a single conversation. “They’re not your kids anymore. You gave that right away, and you do not get to decide when you see them. It’s when they say, or never.”
The figure through the blinds didn’t even look away to respond. “I don’t care what you say. All of you are still my children, and you always will be.”
“You gave them up! You gave them up, and the second you did, they were no longer yours. They became mine—my kids, my problem. I sacrificed for them, worked for them. I was in no better a place than you. No, screw that, I was in a worse one. You had a job, I was a temp. And despite that I made the time to bond with them, to care for them. While you left your responsibility.” From the loudest cry to the softest speech, her voice became little more than a whisper. Not from desire, but from her voice dying on her. “We needed you, and you abandoned us. No one made you do that. Just you. You don’t belong here. You need to go.”
“I’m not leaving until I at least talk to them.”
Rebecca was going to say something, Allison could hear it coming. But it was never realised. A new voice broke in, heavy and slow. “Excuse me, sir, but if you don’t stop giving my dear neighbour a hard time, I’m going to call the police.”
His presence made a change, calming Dylan and making him move away from the blinds. “I’m already here.”
“Sir, your vehicle says city police. You’re a long way from home, and outside your jurisdiction. I very much doubt the local department will appreciate their citizens being harassed by a renegade officer.”
Dylan spoke calmly, like he was on the job. “This is a family matter; nothing for you to be concerned with.”
Allison knew that voice. It was of their neighbour. He was an older man, and he had that look, like he had once been a trucker or a biker, with a long, old moustache and developed fat. “Rebecca, is this true, or should I be calling the police?”
Rebecca was out of sight, but Allison could imagine her reaction, swallowing and nodding to him. “Well, there you have it. Now I suggest you go, or when the police come, I’ll make damn sure you lose that badge of yours, if nothing else.”
In a final protest, Dylan insisted, “I have a right to be here.”
“A right?” The neighbour asked, sighing before adding, “Won’t you take some more boy? It’s more than you deserve.”
For a long time, there was nothing but silence. Then the shuffling of boots on mulch as Dylan walked back to his car and opened his door. “I’m not giving up, Rebecca. I will see my kids again.” Slamming his door shut, he reversed out so fast his bumper bounced as it hit the road. Dylan paused, blasting the siren for a moment before leaving them behind.
The moment Dylan was gone, the force keeping Rebecca standing dissipated and she fell to her knees. At the same time, Allison no longer felt frozen, rushing out the door to the front yard. She smiled briefly, giving a nod to her neighbour as her sister turned towards her. Just as Rebecca had done for her, Allison wrapped her in her arms and let her cry into her shoulder.
Chapter 13
Closing the book, Allison started to understand why her teachers called it a “study break” instead of a school holiday. Finishing a practice essay, she permitted herself a moment to look through the handful of notifications on her scroll. Most were from Katife, including a few missed calls. Hitting “call back,” Katife’s face appeared on-screen near immediately. “Hey. What’s up?”
“What’s up? I’m with the police is what’s up.” The screen panned, showing the inside of what looked like an interrogation room of some sort.
“Oh my god, what happened?”
“What do you think? They had some more questions to ask. But they want all three of us, so I’ve been sitting here for the last hour waiting for you to answer your scroll. I seriously need you to get here ASAP.”
A lie to last not just the night, but the rest of our lives. “Okay. I’ll be right there. I just need to eat something real quick.”
“Allison!”
“I’m sorry. I’m seriously hungry.”
“And I’m not?”
“I promise I will be really fast. One toast, maybe two. With honey.”
Katife sighed again. “Ugh. Can you at least get Rebecca to take you?”
“I’d love to say yes . . .”
“Then say yes.”
“… but she’s at work right now.”
“Oh, you are freaking kidding.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be as fast as we can.”
“I hate you. And remember to drag Dakota here too.” With that Katife hung up.
Placing her scroll into her pocket, Allison left her room. “Dakota, we’re going into Isoval. Call Nicky too. Time for her to track the police.” Without waiting for a response, she fixed herself a toast.
Repeating her last bike ride, they veered off at the end towards the station. There was a place to chain their bikes, and from there they had to run to catch the train. For nearly half an hour it rushed closer to the city until diving underground as it got close. She typed a message just as the sun was cut from view.
~Gonna be in city for a bit. Wanna hang out?~
At the third subway station, they exited the train, flowing with the foot traffic headed for the surface. When the sun came into view, her signal returned and a message came through.
~Sure, but got class. What time u thinking?~
~No clue. Maybe an hour.~
~KK. Msg me when you’re done~
~Okay, see you then.~
Putting her scroll away, Allison stepped outside with her brother, practically onto the tram stop. It was standing room only, which wasn’t bad for ten minutes. They got off on a platform where eight people waited, one of which was a familiar blond. “Hey, missed you.”
“Missed you too,” Dakota said. They didn’t kiss or embrace or even shake hands. There was wind in the city. It played with Allison’s hair. It didn’t play on Nikita’s. She was just a projection.
A few steps behind, Allison listened in as Nikita talked about the building she was staying in, pointing to the high-rise just a few buildings down from the police station. Detective Casey was waiting for them once they walked in. “Sorry to call you in like this,” she said. “It’s just how things are.”
As they arrived at the room Allison had seen on-screen, Katife groaned in either relief or to show her disapproval of the delay. “And here I thought you’d left me to dry.”
“You know we’d never do that.”
Lowering her eyes, Katife muttered, “Yeah, well, it felt like it.”
There was a two-way mirror in the room; they weren’t even trying to hide that. Being only an image in their minds, Nikita showed no reflection. There were a few chairs set up for the twins to sit in, and another two on the other side. “Can we get this over with? I don’t have all day.”
The lines on Detective Casey’s face made her look permanently stressed, unless that was just her work face. “Thanks for coming. The investigators will be here soon.”
“What?” Katife near-screamed, but cut herself off when two people walked in.
They both wore suits from off the rack. A good rack, but a rack nonetheless. The man was tall with dark hair cropped on the sides, the woman with a ponytail so strict it made Nikita’s look relaxed. “Hello. I am Special Agent Paul and this is Special Agent Carter. We’re from Temple’s investigative unit.” As he sat down, Allison saw Paul’s arm had been replaced with a prosthetic.
Without missing a beat, the woman, Carter, continued. “We need to ask you a few things about what you saw.”
“Sure, fire away.” As she spoke, Katife made a loose shooting gesture with her hand.
They started with all the usual questions about the things Katife had told the police. Her answers were the same, or near enough to make no difference. Then the questions started to change. “And you were sure that knife was his, correct?” Carter asked, laying a photo of the knife before them.
“Uh, yeah.”
“And have you ever seen him before? TV, newspaper, anywhere at all?”
Katife’s widening eyes and frown showed her confusion plain as day. “What?”
Both agents maintained blank faces, even as they added a second photo to the mix. This one was not taken from the alleyway. The light was synthetic, suggesting it wasn’t even taken from outside, but the tight cropping made it hard to tell. Leaning in, Allison peered at the image. It showed a face with a grey wall behind him. The man faced the camera, looking down a little. It was almost an exact replica of her own photo of Soul, only here he was years younger, built smaller, with a look of fury on his face. “Is this the man you saw?”
The image was enlarged and just a little on the blurry side. Taking a close look, Katife nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.” Satisfied, Carter removed the image from the table. “Mind telling me why Temple’s up in my grill now?”
Inclining her head, Carter said, “We believe this man is a combat mage.”
His voice even enough to match the agents’ faces, Dakota asked, “Are we in danger? How powerful is this guy if he’s getting you involved?”
Clever, to disguise information fishing as concern.
The agents shared a glance. “That’s classified.”
Banging her fist on the table, Allison spoke up, laying the impression of a teenage brat on thick. “Classified my ass! Katife’s a witness. What happens if he comes after her? We deserve to know what’s going on.”
“I’m sorry, we can’t—”
“I’m not asking for his home address. I’m asking for the type of mage you think he is. His ranking, even. How much danger are we in?”
Sharing a glance that seemed to communicate a whole conversation, Paul answered her, sort of. “He’s very powerful, and very dangerous.”
“That means nothing!” she said, slurring the words and drawing them out. “Are you saying he can win a fight with a boxer or break into an armoured car?”
There was a long moment of silence, and it was Paul who eventually gave an answer. “That photo came from inside a Temple base. I can’t say any more.”
Against a mage, a single human was easy to beat. So were noncombatant mages. But Temple was the armed faction of mage police. Even Sensei warned against engaging them. She could remember the times her siblings did engage, after which they often never returned. “We need protection. If he comes after us, we’re dead. You have to help us.”
Now if we can just include protection for Nikita, this can all be over.
“I’m surprised to have a child from Koros asking for help.”
Carter’s words shouldn’t have surprised her, but they did. Obviously they would do a background check first, and it wasn’t like Koros was a secret anymore. “I have one arm. You just said he soloed a Temple base. Do the math.”
Agent Paul cut in, breaking his poker face a little. “He has no reason to go after you. It’s not like he knew what you saw.”
Making a show of calming down, Allison took a deep breath and let the interview continue. Agent Carter took the reins. “We have a few more questions we’d like to ask.”
Rolling her eyes, Katife said, “I told the police everything I saw. Nothing’s gonna change for you.”
“What about what you heard?”
She blinked. “Excuse me?”
Carter continued. “Did you hear anything? Something they may have said, perhaps?”
“Look, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, lady, but I had blood pumping in my ears, and that’s what I got to hear.”
“Please, just think. Anything at all.” If Paul was the good cop, he wasn’t doing a great job.
