Taralom summoned me quite urgently this afternoon, and there was a tone of accusation in his voice. I admit that I am somewhat to blame for Evan being in danger, having encouraged Miranda to bring him into the situation, but I think this could be a new opportunity. After all, he was not harmed, and he has led me to a new line of attack, as it were.
There’s a short walk from the bus stop to the apartment, and Evan was about halfway through it when he noticed a car that he’s seen a few times in the past few days. In previous days, he’s contented himself with scowling at the figure in the driver’s seat, but today he was in a foul mood, and he made a rather reckless decision. He went up to the car and pounded on the driver’s window.
Thanks to Taralom’s sharp eyes, I arrived only a second later, while the young man in the car was still blinking in astonishment at this angry boy.
“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Evan was shouting through the window. “Miranda and I aren’t going anywhere, you idiot. You’re just wasting your time, so why don’t you go waste it somewhere else? There’s a Starbucks just down the road.” He pointed, his index finger as sharp as a needle.
The window rolled down, revealing a skinny, skeptical face. Today’s watcher is one of the youngest in Mr. Hill’s employ, a hard-faced young man named Alex. He hasn’t been sent to keep watch before, which makes me think (with some pride) that Mr. Hill is running low on trustworthy people to keep an eye on this particular family.
“Kid,” Alex said, “are you fucking stupid?”
I wrapped a wing around Evan and took a closer look at Alex. He’s no older than twenty-one, and the suit he was wearing didn’t fit him well, so I have to assume it was loaned to him. His aura was like a shell around him, closing him in entirely, but the hardness of it seemed somehow brittle to me.
“Are you?” Evan demanded. “It’s the middle of the day and there are thirteen units in that building.” He pointed to the one next door. “And sure, maybe no one has their windows open right now, but I can promise you I can scream real loud. You really gonna try something?”
Alex spread his hands. “Look, I’m just sitting here, kid. You didn’t have to come and start screaming in my face.”
“What you’re doing is fucking with my—with Miranda’s head.” Evan’s voice quavered for a minute, but he tightened his fists and went on. “You’re scaring her, which you don’t need to do because she’s already trying as hard as she can to get your stupid money, so can’t you just lay off her?”
Now Alex was frowning at Evan. “Why do you call her by her name? Isn’t she your mom?”
Evan’s eyes stung, and he took a step back from the car to hide this weakness from the enemy. “No, stupid. I’m a foster kid, and she was going to adopt me, but now we have to wait because of the dumb money.” The tears wouldn’t stop, so he spun around and made a snowball, which he then hurled with deadly accuracy into Alex’s face.
“Kid, what the fuck!” Alex pushed the door of the car open, and Evan sprang away, racing across the parking lot and into his building.
I stayed put to keep Alex from trying to follow, but I soon realized that despite his spike of anger, he had no intention of attacking Evan. In fact, once he had brushed the snow from his face and chest, his mood turned morose, and I thought I saw a gleam of sympathy in his aura.
I stepped closer, spreading my wings over him. “What’s this?” I murmured to him. “Compassion?” On a whim, I washed the feeling over him, and I was astonished to feel a wave of it coming back from him.
It was the strangest thing—his aura did not at all open to my influence, but it was as if it became transparent, so that I could see his thoughts clearly. It seems that Alex, too, was a foster child, but he was not lucky enough to find a loving home. He can understand Evan’s fear of losing this home, and though his empathy was mingled with resentment—why him and not me? he wondered—it was not by any means ruined by it.
Moved to some compassion of my own, I slipped into the warm car to share a bit more warmth. “It is not too late for you,” I said to him. “You can still find a family of your own—but it will never be among these cold, greedy people.”
Alex took no notice of me, and yet he was still thinking about Evan when he drove away an hour later. He did not report the incident to his superiors, either.
It’s given me an idea. I have had a little success picking away at the edges of Mr. Hill’s organization, but it won’t be enough to help Miranda and Evan. But if I can get into the heart of the outfit—get a spy on the inside, if you will—I may be able to take them down, thereby not only protecting my charges, but anyone else that Mr. Hill may be manipulating.
It may take some work, but I like the possibilities, and it is the course that is most aligned with my own interests and strengths. And I know just who to ask for advice.