Page 27 of Aberrant Monsters
“Yeah, well, now you know how it feels to not know.”
“August!” Nandi admonished. “It’s not fair to punish him for a decision made in grief, a decision made in fear. He lost his sister, for God’s sake, then he took us in and had to grieve in secret to protect us and give us a secure, loving home.” She tucked a tendril of my hair behind my ear. “I know you’re hurting, but you’re focusing that anger in the wrong place.”
Guilt gnawed at me. What was I doing? These were the people who’d stuck by me, my family. Mine. She was right. I needed to focus my anger at my mother’s killer. I had to let his lie slide, because holding on to it meant losing my uncle too, and I wasn’t prepared to do that.
I grabbed his hand and squeezed. “I’m sorry. I’m okay. It’s going to be okay.”
He shook his head. “No,I’msorry. So sorry I lied.”
I believed him.
“What does the Order want?” Nandi asked.
“Me and Telarion to work for them. They want us to catch eldritch monsters and investigate the aberration problem.”
“Aberration problem?” Uncle Fred’s eyes grew round. “Oh…Of course. That’s what he is.”
“Yeah, it is. And there are more like him. Apparently, several rift walkers have been infected in the past two years. They need to know where the aberrations are coming from. They want information on them. All they know so far is that the aberrations were once people or creatures from other realms and that they have no soul. They want Telarion and me to find out more. In return, they’ll figure out a way to separate us. They’ll set me free of my obligation to the Order and tell Telarion what they know about who he really is.”
“Telarion was a person?” Nandi sounded horrified. “What the fuck happened to him?”
“That’s what I’m going to try and find out.”
“You can’t trust them,” Uncle Fred said.
Yeah, my gut warned me of the same. “I don’t have a choice. If I don’t play along, they’ll kill me.”
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t try and beat them to the punch and find a way to separate you guys ourselves,” Nandi said.
“Won’t stop ’em killing August,” Archie said.
“He has a valid point.” Uncle Fred sighed. “They have you now, the contract is void, so all we can do is hope that they adhere to their end of the bargain. In the meantime, we’ll do everything we can to make sure you succeed in your side of it.”
“It’s not just up to us. They’re sending me a handler.”
“What?” Uncle Fred stood abruptly and began to pace. “No, absolutely not. We do not need a handler in our midst.”
Archie raised his hand. “Um… What’s so awful about a handler?”
Uncle Fred stopped pacing and glared at him. “What’s so awful? What’s so awful?” His pitch rose.
“That’s what I asked,” Archie said, shooting ussave meglances.
“They’re snakes, that’s what,” Uncle Fred snapped. “Glory seekers who can’t rift walk themselves but delight in pushing their charges into dangerous situations for the thrill they can siphon from their charges’ exploits.”
“So it’s true,” Nandi said. “Handlers are psi-witches.”
It was my first time hearing the term.
“What’s a psi-witch?” Archie and I asked at the same time.
“Witches who can tap into their target’s mind and experience their emotions,” Nandi explained. “They can’t read minds, but they can siphon emotional energy and feed off the highs and lows. You’ll find them working in casinos and nightclubs, anywhere that you can find a high level of energy, positive or negative. It works either way and gives them a kick.”
“They’re fucking psychic vampires,” Uncle Fred said.
We all stared at him in shock because the F word was not a word he ever used.
“You just cursed,” Nandi pointed out.
