A Touch of Madness (A Recipe...

Have you ever wondered what happens to drunk bar workers if they can’t make it home after a bender? It’s nowhere near as glamorous as television would make it out to be; I woke up in the most interesting dog pile ever. My head rested against Barry’s stomach, utilizing his furry tummy as a surprisingly comfortable pillow. I had Dom’s head cradled against my abdomen and Amanda spooned against my back. Cassie and Zeke were curled up around each other close by and Edward was out cold on his own in the corner. We were all in the office that Amanda uses for day to day business needs, though nothing even close to resembling business was going to occur this fine morning; the hangovers that must be marching their way through everyone’s skulls would phenomenal. I couldn’t resist myself; I called out, “Good Morning Vietnam! It is 06:00 in the morning and what does that O stand for? Oh my GOD it’s early!” it jerked everyone awake with various groans, curses and mutterings.

“Hey, whose hand is that?” Amanda called out.

“Depends, whose ass is that?” Edward replied jokingly.

“Goddess we look like hell.” Cassie said sleepily.

“Yeah but you should see the other guy.” Barry retorted.

I sat up and stretched, feeling my spine crack and settle more comfortably in place. Edward was watching me, as was Zeke.

“How are you feeling?” Zeke asked, giving me a once over clinically.

“Embarrassed, violated, happy, hungry and like I spent the night snuggled up to a brillow pad.” I replied honestly.

“Is that all? I guess you had a good night then.” Dominic quipped.

“Aren’t you all supposed to be dreadfully hung over, why am I the one that feels the worse for wear?” I demanded. They were all way too peppy for my tastes.

“Some of that is a side effect of the power backlash baby sister.” Zeke explained to me. I grunted in response. “But yes, I am definitely dreadfully hung over.” He added, holding his forehead. “What time is it?” he asked, looking around. I could hear shuffling as someone looked for a watch.

“I have my watch right here, but my eyes won’t focus.” Barry rumbled. “Oh Mother, Callie why did you have to wake me up?”

“Because I have to pee and there was no way I was going to be awake when you all are still sleeping.” I replied jovially. From somewhere I scrapped the determination to get to my feet and toddle towards the bathroom. It helped to clear my head. The cold water I drank and splashed on my face were also good allies on the road to recovery.

Eventually we got everyone into vertical positions and managed to sort out our assorted limbs and appendages. Though a problem quickly arose. “There is no way I can just snap us out of here; I can’t concentrate.” Edward confessed.

“So we walk home, no big deal the condo’s only twenty minutes away.” I tried to reassure.

Amanda snorted.“Yeah but with you dressed like that, you’re going to get far more attention that you generally like out on the street.” I blinked blearily down at my outfit for a moment.

“Oh yeah.” Was my articulate response. I gave an eloquent shrug. “A little leering has never killed me and I’m fairly certain I look too intimidating for anyone to try and make a problem of it. I’ll survive the stares.” I just hoped it wasn’t too cold outside yet, this leather bra would not be fun in the cold. The pants wouldn’t be much better either but moving around would likely help keep me warm enough. Cassie had pulled Zeke’s tux jacket on over her lounge dress, which got her covered up. Poor Barry was still dressed like a Chippendale, only sometime during the night he’d lost his bowtie and cuffs; yet all his body hair covered him quite well.

“Guess this will have to do, hopefully no one freezes.” I said and headed to the door; out into the bright awful sunlight. Now you may be concerned for Ezekiel, my vampire brother-in-law-to-be. However, true vampirism differs from legends. He doesn’t burst into flames, but Zeke is very light sensitive; direct sunlight will give him horrible sunburns on exposed skin and extended exposure leads to lacerations and lesions. A twenty minute stumble to our condo is not long term exposure and it left him with only slight sunburn. Stairs were a big challenge to me but I got up them eventually. My reward was the beautiful, wonderful shower. Hot water poured over my aching head and slowly some of the pains flowed away, down the drain with the dirty water. After that things were easier. Not any faster mind you, but significantly less grubby.

Washing off the remnants of last night’s adventures, I changed into soft sweat pants and a baggy t-shirt; real classy. Step two had me curled up on the couch and sipping my hot chocolate while the others guzzle coffee. The last thing I ever wanted was hot coffee, though the shower had kick started my system enough that I was craving greasy, salty foods to battle the Power fatigue of last night. The noise that even simple cooking makes nearly caused me to be murdered by my friends, but since I made enough of my food to share, they resisted the impulse to murder me. Though it would have been funny to see hung over people try to chase me down right now.

I watched as Cassie scrapped together enough effort to cure the males of their hangovers, which left her alone stuck in a wretched state; so much for misery loving company. “Well this is just peachy. I get to go run around with yelling children while my joints don’t entirely feel connected.” I announced, snuggling up to my hung over twin.

“You poor baby.” Barry cooed sarcastically. “Come on Cal, you know they think you’re a miserable bitch and that’s without a Power drain to sweeten your mood. Just imagine what fun you can have with the poor bastards today.”

I glared at him with blood shot eyes. Would I feel any better if I had intentionally done this to myself, or would I still feel like whining? “Well, beat up or not, sitting here complaining about it isn’t going to make it go away. Let’s go Barry. I have some of your sweats upstairs. Maybe if I warm up before the screaming hoard arrives I won’t feel like dying quite so much.” The warm up, like the shower, helped me but not enough to make my day all sunshine and roses. I managed to struggle through it nonetheless.

Luckily a Backlash, no matter how well earned, fades by the next day. Saturday morning was rather nice, however the newspaper headlines were not so nice. Front page was entirely dominated by an article about an unknown Other breaching Accords security during the Power flare last week. I figured that we were only hearing about it now because the Counsel had probably tried to keep this quiet as long as they could. But according to today’s paper, this unknown Other was capable of somehow causing its victims to go raging and completely insane. It could affect Normal, Caster and Other alike, though with a Normal the worst that happened was violence. With the rest though, madness led to Wild Magic, and that was very bad. The article helpfully listed some precautions to take and left it there; it was just enough information to cause fear and alarm without actually helping society as a whole. Thankfully there was no mention of the little Incubus incident from Thursday.

Cassie shuffled downstairs, giving me an absent kiss on the cheek as she stole the newspaper from me. I watched her face as she read the first article. She gave it the same disgusted look I did and slapped it down. “I encountered a few of those poor victims; they’ve sent a couple to Ottawa Civic just so I can try to help. Apparently no one else has had any luck with them.” She explained to me. Not knowing how to respond, I bit into my bagel and tried to look wise. “I just don’t know where to start to help them though. Their madness is an outside influence but it’s reinforced by their own Wild Magic and damaged psyches. I try fixing their physical injuries and the mental damage just causes them to hurt themselves again. And the mental damage is exasperated by the magical damage, which can’t heal until the mental damage has been fixed.” She started on a long explanation that I tried to understand, but sometimes I think Cassie just starts throwing out gibberish because I understood nothing after a few seconds. Finally she took pity on me. “Sorry Cal. I know this isn’t your thing. But it helps me to bitch about it with someone who’s not judging me or demanding that I be perfect and just so.” She sounded bitter.

“So tell them to go stuff it.” I recommended. “I mean, you’ve been a poster girl for what, six years? Surely they can find someone else.” I have to admit, the idea of Cassie not being famous intrigued me. But mostly I was playing devil’s advocate. She loved modeling and being a figure head and I know it.

“Sometimes I really wish it were that simple.” Cassie admitted with a sigh. Then she gave me a guilty smile. “But we both know it’s not going to happen. Besides, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I stopped being a role model.” She shrugged to herself and drank the last of her coffee.

“Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.” I offered. She gave me a scrutinizing look and I realized that the other shoe was about to drop. I hate it when she plays me like that.

“Since you’ve offered, the Counsel was wondering if I’d be willing to do a family shoot. They’re thrilled that I’m engaged, but since Zeke is a demon blood, they’re a little leery on the public view. So they want a shoot of us with our loved ones around, to show the public that a demon blood is not evil, just a little bit different.”

I could have kicked myself for opening my mouth. I hate, truly HATE having my picture taken. Unlike Cassie I am not a natural born model, I don’t know what to do with myself. But for her I’d put up with a day of awkward poses. “Sure, just tell me when and I’ll clear my schedule.” I agreed with a reluctant sigh.

“Thanks love!” Cassie beamed at me dementedly.

I rolled my eyes at her and finished my breakfast. Today was my rare day off. I get one of those every once in a while; a day where I have no plans with anyone. So I used those days for Devotions. In a world where your deity can reach out and literally recreate you, you believe. Both Cassie and I gave dedications to the Goddess as a whole, but we actively worship different Aspects of Her.

The Goddess has five Aspects: Maiden, Lady, Mother, Matriarch and Dancer. Each Aspect has certain stages of life associated with them and each represents different qualities. The Maiden represents childhood, innocence and dealt with magic and Casters who create new things or nurtured new growth. The Lady was a full woman and represented magic that dealt with the processes of life; elementals and the like. This was also the aspect that the Fae were most familiar with as she took an interest in the Fair Folk. The Mother was Cassie’s personal Aspect as she dealt with life giving, Healers and magic that preserved life or eased suffering. She was also the guardian of Normals. The Matriarch was the wise woman, she dealt with precognition and the spirit world. She takes care of Casters and Others in general and the demon kin in specific. My personal Aspect was the Dancer. Sounds strange huh? But The Dancer is also known as the Reaper or the Warrior. She guards magic, secrets, choices and change in life. She Dances the line between the cross over between life and death and she also guards rebirth. Changers often pay her dedications as she takes sacrifices of the self such as pleasure and pain, and depending on the personality of the Changer they either love their animal selves or loath it. My dedications are a little different as I dance for her, but in the end its all the same to Her.

Since I had a day to myself, I decided to go full tilt on the dedications. There is no place of worship that I felt the need to go to, so I set up candles around the first floor. I closed the curtains and turned off the lights, wanting the ambiance of the candle light only. And I started to Dance. I put all my thoughts and emotions into it and made them the music I moved to. My happiness at Cassie’s engagement was a quick foot ballet form, my frustration about my inability to Sense Edward was a shoulder tumble, my love for dancing was the main tempo and my belief in the Goddess was the counter measure. I could feel all the energy I was dedicating being viewed and received by the Dancer. An unseen shadow, or mirror image, danced with me; the only visible portions of it were Her molten gold eyes, glowing with pleasure. It wasn’t often that She sent a Remnant of her Aspect, so either She had the desire to send one to me or my dedications had pleased Her. Either way it was a blessing from her.

I danced with Her Remnant until exhaustion slowed my movements, it wasn't the deadly exhaustion of a Power drain but instead the physical exhaustion of having used up every last shred of energy in my system. The Remnant laughed its spectral laugh at me and spun away into nothingness. The laughter revived me enough so I only felt tired, like after a really good workout. It was Her gift to me in response to my full dedication. I hadn’t asked for it, but apparently She had been pleased with me; I almost glowed with pride at that. When I felt up to moving, I started cleaning up the melted wax from the burnt out candles, really hadn't realized that I had danced for several hours with the Remnant. That was pretty damn good, even for me. And all that concentrated effort left me hungry. That's the secret of maintaining my rockin' body, you gotta fuel the fire and after today, I had earned a treat. So I shamelessly decided that I’d drag my loved ones out for fajita fun. With that plan in mind, I left both Cassie and Edward messages and took myself upstairs to a nice relaxing bath, with bubbles. Goddess touched or not, that bath was necessary to help my muscles recover.

It was good that my bath was relaxing, because I had no energy left. It’s my personal choice to use up even my reserves when I dance for Her, but it did lead to a little nap in the bubble bath. I woke up to still slightly warm water and the sound of someone coming in the condo door. It was 3:30, so I must have taken a ten minute nap. The trick to good bath tub lounging is to let out some water every ten minutes or so and replace it with hot water. I contemplated staying in there for another ten minutes but decided to haul myself out of the bath tub before I became a permanent prune. Snuggling into a warm, fuzzy bathrobe, I shuffled to my room and got dressed. I could hear two pairs of feet moving around the condo, so I peeked my head out to see if the others were ready.

Cassie was doing her impatient pacing and Edward was slouched on the couch, looking beat. “Long day?” I asked, recognizing the gray tinge of magic exhaustion.

“Not long so much as hard.” Edward replied, getting up off the couch. “Large groups in rapid succession always tires me out.” He always kept his job descriptions vague, as some of them were secret types. “Why do you look so tired, I thought today was your day off?” he asked, a curious frown in place.

“Devotions.” Was my one word reply. Edward kept frowning but Cassie nodded. Then I remembered that as far as Edwards has known, my devotions were more meditation style than physical. “Before, my devotions were metaphysical and I was mentally tired but physically fine. Now that I’m a bit older, I Dance.” I explained briefly. I don’t like going into detail of a very private matter. “Today She sent a Remnant to Dance with me, so I’m a bit tired myself.” Cassie flashed me a brilliant smile; she knew what sending a Remnant meant to me. Edward accepted my brief explanation and smiled at my joy.

The ByWard Market is full of outdoor vendors for about 90% of the year. The only time they close shop is winter, and then only when it’s cold enough outside to keep people off of the streets. At the Market you can buy fresh maple syrup, in season fruits and vegetables picked that morning, get henna tattoos done by indifferent artists or have charms cast by indifferent witches. Anything that can be sold is pretty much in that area, and any type of food that could be eaten had its own restaurant or food truck. We were going to Lonestar, there is a nearby Hooters, an Honest Lawyer, the Hard Rock Café, Zak’s 24 hour diner and more esoteric restaurants such as Sweet Meats, an Other run restaurant that served Other World delicacies- fury burgers, hydra rings, that sort of thing- and my personal favourite, Mother Goose’s. Run by a Normal, it caters to your personal needs. Vampires can use the blood bar, I can get a damn fine roast beef sandwich, Barry can have raw meat- gross- etc… It takes some getting used to the culture shock, but it’s worth it.

We had to walk around a group of True Human protestors. They were listening to one woman rail about the degenerates; that’s Casters like me, and the monsters corrupting the real inheritors of the Earth. You know the type, shout slogans, blah blah woof woof. The walking crowds generally gave them wide berth. No one wants to be associated with the radical hate group. They wanted to shut the gates to the Other worlds, slaughter the Others as monsters and cage us Casters as freaks. We wouldn’t be killed out right, but instead sterilized and allowed to die off. Needless to say they weren’t on my Christmas card list. I spotted a Mountie coming to chase them off; True Humans had a small following in our openly accepting country. True, parts of Canada were more prone to anti-Other outbursts, but Ontario was second only to Quebec in its acceptance of Others as equal citizens. The United States was the stronghold for True Humans in the Americas, North and South. I don’t know the exact distribution of the other continents, though I do know that Europe had the highest Fae population per human inhabitant.

Lonestar was so worth the effort of busing there; my favourite food is mashed potatoes with gravy but since I almost never eat that anymore, I settle for my second favourite; fajitas. Cassie and I split a pound of steak and chicken while Edward had gone with chicken quesadillas. While we ate, the three of us talked about Cassie’s upcoming family shoot. Most people don’t know we have a legal guardian but no parents; although our true legal guardian Edward never actually adopted us, so trying to explain our relationship with him is difficult. He opted to stay out of it

“I don’t really see you two as the little girls I raised. Honestly, all I did was give you two a safe environment and you two pretty much raised each other. The dynamics have changed so I think it’s best if I don’t confuse people.” He admitted, watching us intensely. I didn’t quite understand his intensity but part of me was chewing over if maybe his ability to block my Sensate gift had some part of him not feeling attached to us like a parent would.

My cell phone chose that moment to start ringing. “Callahan Orenda speaking, how may I help you?” I asked. I should have known my day of rest and recovery wouldn't last for long.

“Miss Orenda? Your phone number is listed as an emergency contact for one Albert Wesk. As such you are being informed that he has been admitted to the Ottawa Civic hospital. He sustained a severe beating and is currently in Healer care.” Albert Wesk? Who the hell was Albert Wesk? Wait, I did recognize the name, but he hated to be called by it.

“I’ll be there as soon as possible. What’s his room number?” she gave it to me. “Got it, thanks.” Edward and Cassie were giving me concerned frowns as I hung up. I looked at them grimly “Barry’s been hospitalized.” I told them, all humor gone. Quickly we paid for the food and Edward marshaled the strength to snap us to the hospital. Tired or not, Barry was a part of our weird little family and Edward would never begrudge him the effort.

I have to admit, I was a little terrified. I mean come on, Barry’s a freaking Bear shape changer and someone still managed to put him in the hospital. That’s no easy task. Like all myths, the ones about shape changers have some accuracy. In this case, Barry has a remarkable amount of physical strength and the ability to heal injuries quicker than an average human so for him to be hurt badly enough to need a hospital was a bad sign. I’m guessing he got mobbed, literally, more than one attacker.

As we got to his room, I spotted the local Change leader waiting for us. Alex spotted us and came towards us, face poker perfect. I’ve met Alex Dominar once or twice before. “It seems my Bear was attacked by a very large group of True Humans. They used silver coated weapons. He’s lucky that silver bullets are hard to make. The local Change Healer is in there, patching up the broken bones.” Alex explained. Somehow I hung onto my temper; silver hurts shape changers. Silver absorbs and holds magical energy very easily; Shape changers are made of energy basically. Wild strands of energy wrap them in their animal forms and while Changed, they give off energy. That also explains why they heal faster; their bodies have the resources to spare. However, if you use silver on them it sucks that energy away from them, slowing them down, making it easier to hurt them. Silver also works on demon kin but not on the Fae. The traditional iron works against them, but that has to do with iron magnetism.

“Cassandra, I was hoping you’d be able to help us talk to the Counsel and see if they’ll put more pressure on the government to include silvered weapons on the list of registered lethal weapons.” Alex requested. My jaw almost hit my shoelaces.

Alex did not make requests, he gave orders and made demands. I didn’t know what Alex’s change form was and I had thus far resisted the urge to ask, but whatever his animal form, it had to be formidable. To be leader of a local 온라인카지노주소 of Changers required some serious strength. In Ontario the most provincial leader Maria, had a fearsome reptile form and she was a military style Commander. Apparently some street gang tried to take over part of her established territory and she sent them to the morgue in bite sized pieces. She’s not the kind of person you wanted to make angry. Alex was a shade more diplomatic but he still had more hard edge to him than required to be truly diplomatic. So him asking sweet, innocent, famous Cassie for help made sense, but it was the fact that he wasn't just telling her to do it that was an unexpected move from him.

“I’ll go in and check on Barry, you two go discuss and if anything requires your attention, I’ll holler. Is that a good idea?” I managed to turn it into a request at the last moment. Good rule of thumb, never order a Change leader around. They tend to be a mite touchy about authority challenges. Alex looked at me with his firey orange eyes and accepted my proposal. Relief swept through me, making my knees tremble a little.

Seeing Barry being healed turned my minor trembles into full tilt shaking but from anger, not fear. His face was busted and all of his appendages were broken; there were lacerations all over his body but he still smiled when he saw me. It broke my heart a little. I stepped towards him and would have hugged him if I could find a spot where a hug wouldn’t hurt. The Change Healer was in a trance at the moment, which told me how bad Barry’s injuries had been. A Healer who is also a Changer was rare, and they were tough as all nine hells. To need to meditate after healing with Barry still looking this rough meant that he had been knocking on death’s door. That thought made my skin run cold and tears pricked my eyes. I didn’t weep though, because I was still too angry.

“So who do I have to go kill?” I asked, voice hoarse with emotions. Barry used his left hand to grab my fingers. His grip was pathetically weak, and he couldn’t move much due to the brace on his arm. He’d be fine in a couple of weeks but I was too angry to let the knowledge comfort me. This was not the first time he had been attacked, and the last time we were much younger and it had ended much bloodier. A painful piece of hi온라인카지노게임 that neither one of us liked to discuss.

“The last thing I need is to haul my ass out of bed to bail your ass out of jail Callahan.” Barry teased, voice ragged; he sounded completely exhausted. I raised an eyebrow and indicated the still in a trance Change Healer.

“You’re damned lucky and you know it. What the hell happened Albert?” I asked, using his full name. I only ever used his name when I was extremely upset, I think I’ve used it twice before this. He flinched at the raw anger in my voice so I made an effort to calm down. I used the same calming techniques we taught the children to control all emotions; it helped me stuff the killing rage into a box in the corner of my mind.

“I was heading home from a date.” He started explaining. “He’s a real charmer and a Normal, named Melvin.” Barry had the hero complex; he likes to date guys or girls who needed to be protected or rescued. “We were walking to the parking lot where his car was parked when we got jumped. I told him to run and they ignored him completely, apparently they just wanted me. I stayed in my human form until one of the bastards broke my arm. Then I went fight form.” Fight form is a slang term that refers to a half human, half animal shape. In Barry’s case, he bulked up and got claws and a muzzle full of teeth. It wasn’t terribly pretty. “But I still didn’t hurt anyone, I was just protecting myself and trying to disarm them. But they took me out Callie. There were at least twenty of them, and once they knocked me to the ground they tried to eviscerate me.” He trailed off as he got stuck in the memory for a moment. What he didn’t say out loud was what they did after he was unable to defend himself. The True Humans want to sterilize us Casters and there’s one sure way to do that to a man. They castrated him, which explained the Healer’s trance, it takes a lot of effort to heal that kind of mutilation. Barry was just lucky that the weapon had a low silver concentration or the damage would have been permanent. As it was, he’d have a shiny scar down his stomach and across, well, you know.

I patted Barry’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, no one needs to know but whom you decide to tell. If you’d like, Cassie’s out in the hall. She can patch up some of your hurts so you can at least go home.” I suggested. He thought about it for a second, then agreed. So I went to get Cassie, she asked me to keep everyone else out for a few minutes. So I stood guard duty with Alex watching me, and Edward watching Alex. You could walk on the testosterone in the air.

A pretty little brunette man with the world’s curliest hair walked towards me. He was frowning at me; I knew that look. “No I am not Cassandra Orenda. So asking is a waste of time. Is there anything else I can help you with?” I said bluntly. He went an astonishing shade of pink.

“I’m sorry. You look a remarkable amount like her. Actually I’m here to see Albert. I’m Melvin.” He came forward to shake my hand. I was amused to say the least. He was maybe 5’7 and the mental image of him and Barry together was a little entertaining, similar to seeing a hamster eat a banana.

“He’s in with a Healer right now but he’ll be ok. How are you doing?” I asked, warming my tone of voice.

“I’m ok. Barry told me to run, and those… monsters ignored me. So I called the cops. I also took pictures of as many of the people as I could.” He added, proud of his actions.

I couldn’t find fault with his actions though I hated that he had left Barry to fend for himself, ff the mob had turned on Melvin, he would have died and Barry would have hurt someone trying to protect him. Taking the pictures was pure genius though, it’s hard to deny your actions when its caught on film. Alex drifted closer to us, I assume to demand the photos when the door to Barry’s room opened. Cassie stepped out, looking tired but happy. She spotted the curly haired man and beamed at him.

“You must be Melvin! Barry’s in there and he’d love to see you.” Cassie lead the man in to see Barry, conveniently taking him out of Alex’s reach as she closed the door behind her again.

Sometimes I’m not too smart; make me angry or scared and I start shooting my mouth off. Make me angry and scared and then I turn into a suicidal idiot. I turned to Alex, seeing him glare at the closed door. “Even if you got those pictures, you can’t hunt them down to get retribution. That’s not only a PR nightmare; it’s potentially suicidal. You’re not that stupid, are you?” As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like slapping myself. Way to go Callahan, not only did you manage to tell him what to do, you also called him an idiot and questioned his dominance. Brilliant, I don’t think I could have intentionally done that if I’d wanted to, but I did it without even thinking which tells you something. The look Alex gave me would have killed a person with a weak heart. But instead of the fear I was half prepared for, I got flooded with anger. I stepped right up to Alex, seriously invading his personal space and poked him in the chest.

“I don’t care about your stupid authority over the 온라인카지노주소. I don’t care that you want to prove that you are the toughest motherfucker around. You’re upset that Barry got hurt because that’s a challenge to you. You’d hunt these people down to prove a point. Barry’s my best friend and we have killed to defend each other before. I would kick the gates of hell down and bitch slap the devil into submission if needed because no one hurts my friends. Glare and snarl at me all you want your Lordship, I don’t care. But I will tell you that you’re acting like a moron and not like the intelligent leader of a 온라인카지노주소 of Changers that you need to be.” The entire time I was ranting at him, I had kept eye contact. That’s also a serious dominance challenge, by the way. See what I mean about the suicidal thing? Before Alex could get in more of a response than a growl, Edward pulled me back out of Alex’s personal space, which also made me break eye contact. He pushed me into the hospital room and closed the door behind me. Whatever went on out there was unknown as hospital rooms are individually warded.

Cassie and Barry were watching me, Cassie took a look in my memories and saw what I did. She just shook her head at me; I had the grace to blush at my own stupidity. “I think I should avoid your boss Barry. I seem to have authority issues and he seems to have pain in the ass issues.” I explained glibly. He grinned at me and I changed the subject. “Hey Melvin, how did you think of taking pictures? I would have booked it like a bat out of hell.” Not really, but I would at least try to get along with Barry’s boyfriend since I’d failed so miserably with his 온라인카지노주소 leader.

Melvin smiled at my compliment. “I’m a journalism student. I know how important the right picture can be.” He explained. Then went on a spiel about the legal actions that were going to be taken. I may have looked interested, but I ignored every word he said. The Change Healer finally woke from her trance. She blinked bright blue eyes open and a flash of surprise went through them when she spotted me watching her. I pointed at Cassie and smiled. That’s twice in ten minutes where someone thought I was my twin. Frustrating.

Needless to say, when you get two Healers together, they start talking in a language that no one but another Healer could hope to understand. So I surreptitiously watched Barry talk to Melvin. He seemed to be fascinated by Barry, and he knew he was a Changer. Barry seemed quite smitten by the curly haired reporter-to-be. Well at least he had brains in his head. After a couple of minutes the Change Healer chased us all out of the room to give Barry a full check over so he could be released from the hospital. Melvin made his apologies and left and I stepped nervously out into the hall, but Alex was gone. Edward, however, was giving me a very dirty look. Guess he wasn’t too impressed with me right now. To be fair, I wasn’t too impressed with myself right now either. So with nothing to say to him, I chose the smart option and ignored him. Not willing to worry about useless waste, I stuffed the issue into a corner of my mind to play by itself. The Change Healer came out a minute later smiling.

“Albert’s just getting dressed and he’ll be free to go home. I think it would be best if he had someone stay with him for a couple of days.” I volunteered. He was my best friend, a co worker and I already had a set of keys to his apartment. Hell, I even had some spare clothes there.

The Healer gave me some instructions, food recommendations and other such trivia and then signed him over to my care. As soon as Barry was dressed, Edward snapped us over and dropped us off. Cassie helped me tuck Barry up into a couch and promised to swing by with some of my stuff for tomorrow. I managed to tease her about a reprieve from running and she gave me a soft smile. I could understand her worry. Hell, as a Healer, she understood Barry’s brush with death better than I did. When they left, I turned on a sleazy movie channel and curled up on the couch, instinctively curling around Barry’s head as much as I could. He rested his head on my hip and belly, and we watched the cult classic Evil Dead. Barry pretty much fell asleep right away; his body was exhausted and even with Healer’s helping him, he was still pretty beat up. Cassie had fixed his legs, but his left arm was still broken and it hurt to use his right. Also his face still looked battered but it did look better. Eventually, I too drifted off to slumberland.