Chapter 13

Thirteen

G etting left behind and having to wait wasn't as lonely or boring as Everly had anticipated. In fact, the twenty-nine hours since Bryn had left with Nox and Merlin had been surprisingly intense and Everly was exhausted. He had barely slept.

Everly had kept his promise to wait right there and hadn't moved from the spot in the foyer Bryn had pointed at before saying goodbye, the afternoon prior. He had raced to the bathroom under the stairs four times and had taken a brief nap in the study while Nelson kept an eye on the door. But other than that, Everly hadn't moved until all hell broke loose.

He had never really understood that expression or experienced anything that could qualify as hell breaking loose. But that was exactly what happened after Nelson answered the door, just after noon, and a tall, handsome, young man stumbled over the threshold. He had dark, floppy hair, a scruffy beard, and olive skin, and a messenger bag was slung across his chest. Everly guessed he was an academic, but the sleeve of his blazer was torn and his khakis were dirty.

"Tony? What happened?" Nelson demanded as he caught him.

Tony's eyes rolled behind his glasses. "Not sure," he slurred, then sagged in Nelson's arms.

"Hey, Arawn? Fletch? I need a hand out here," Nelson called and grimaced at Everly as they came racing from upstairs and the study. "Grab the first aid kit from under the kitchen sink."

"Got it!" Everly dashed to the kitchen to find it. Nelson had carried Tony to the sofa in the study and Arawn and Fletcher were checking his vitals and assessing him for injuries. "What happened?" Everly asked as he handed the kit to Nelson.

"I can't find anything," Fletcher said, giving Tony's ankles a gentle turn but he remained unconscious.

Arawn was holding Tony's wrist and watching the clock on the mantle. "His pulse and his temperature are elevated and he's flushed and shaking like he has a fever, but I don't see any wounds either."

Tony was taken upstairs to the room Bryn had used and Arawn ran an IV for fluids, in case he was dehydrated. But Tony wouldn't wake up and his phone started ringing shortly after he arrived.

"I have to get that," Nelson said once he had found it in Tony's bag. "It's his mother. Tony wouldn't want her to worry." He gave his tie a tug and cleared his throat. "Ms. Costa!" Nelson said brightly when he answered it. "It's Agent Grady Nelson. Remember me?" There was a long pause as he listened and Everly could hear a woman with a strong Italian-American accent from across the room. "No, no, no. Everything's fine," Nelson said calmly. "Tony's with the Professor. He had a surprise for Tony. It's some academic thing and you know I really don't understand any of that, but Tony will explain when he gets back… I'm not sure. They're at the school, working out the details… I will… We might keep Tony with us if they run late. No point in him driving all the way to Silver Spring tonight if he's got that meeting early in the morning… Tony didn't tell you about that? Department emergency," he said with a sarcastic laugh. "I'll make sure he texts you, at the minimum… Talk to you later, Celia," Nelson said, ending the call and pushing out a hard breath.

"Do you think that worked?" Everly whispered.

"For a few hours," Nelson said, then looked around the room. "No one breathes a word about this to Nox until he gets back. Do we understand?" he asked everyone but Everly shook his head.

"Why don't you want Nox to know? He loves Tony and he'll want to get here as fast as he can to help," he said.

Nelson pointed at Everly, his expression severe. "That's why. Nox is already on the way and Bryn is doing everything he can to get them back as quickly and as safely as he can. If Nox finds out, he'll go nuclear."

"Nuclear?" Everly whispered and Nelson nodded.

"How many times have you heard me use hyperbole?" he asked, glancing at the bed and then at Arawn. "Do whatever you can to…heal him before Nox gets back. I'll do what I can to keep Nox and Celia from finding out anything is wrong."

Luckily, Arawn and Fletcher were able to bring Tony around a few hours later. The first thing Tony did was call his mother and reassure her that he was alright.

"The Professor got us funding for a secret research project. We'll be gone for the weekend and reception might be crap." He gave them a limp thumbs up. "Maybe, Ma… It might be connected to that thing you saw about the aliens, but I can't talk about it right now… I love you too. I'll call as soon as I get a signal." He dropped his phone on the bed and closed his eyes again. "I'm so tired. I don't know why, but I'm so tired."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Nelson asked him. Tony mumbled something as he drifted off but they gasped and swore when he mentioned a child and shadows. Nelson gave his cheeks a few sharp slaps. "Tony, I need you to wake up and repeat that last part," he said loudly.

"Okay…" Tony blinked as he struggled to focus. "I came to drop off the Professor's mail and I saw a child hiding in the alley, in the shadows. I asked if he was okay and he screamed and attacked me."

Everly's stomach dropped and turned sour, he was afraid he was going to be sick. "He attacked you?"

Tony answered with a weak nod. "You know him?"

"Not yet, but—" Nelson stopped when Everly raised his hand.

"I saw him! I'm so sorry I didn't tell anyone. I thought the evil shadow child was just after me or I imagined it. But I didn't say anything because I didn't want Bryn to worry or say I couldn't go outside," Everly confessed in a rush. "It's my fault. I'm so sorry!"

"Not your fault. You didn't attack me," Tony said and this time, they let him drift off and moved the conversation into the hallway.

"This isn't your fault, Everly," Nelson repeated and gave his shoulder a shake so he'd listen. "You should have told us so we'd keep a closer eye on you and the street, but you had no reason to suspect it would attack anyone."

"Why did it attack Tony?" Fletcher asked. "The only other being we know of who's seen it was Ronan O'Sullivan. He said he was attacked by a shadow child, but he's not a human. Right?" He raised his brows at Arawn and he nodded in confirmation.

"A merrow has just a little more magickal ‘nutritional' value than a changeling, but a human like Tony? It doesn't make sense."

"And why now?" Nelson wondered out loud. He checked his watch and swore. "Nox will be back in a few hours. Tony's conscious so we're halfway out of the woods. Keep cleansing and purging and pouring tea down his throat," Nelson said to Arawn and left them to make some calls.

Everly helped as much as he could, rushing up and down the stairs for fresh towels and items from the kitchen pantry. Eventually, there was nothing left to do but wait and let Tony rest. Everly returned to his post in the foyer and Arawn came to keep him company while Fletcher kept an eye on Tony.

"How are you holding up?" Arawn asked Everly.

He shrugged, not at all concerned with himself at the moment. "I'm worried about Tony and I just want Bryn to come home so I can stop worrying about him and Nox and Merlin."

"They'll be fine! We were born not far from there and Nox is an expert hiker and camper," Arawn said as he attempted to comfort and distract Everly.

"How were you born?" he asked without taking his eyes off of the front door. "Bryn said there wasn't much to tell and that your childhood was a blur."

Arawn muttered under his breath about his brother being a knucklehead. "It was a blur, but there's something to tell. Not much, but something," he said wearily. "A healer found us in a field after a terrible storm. She said she saw smoke and went to investigate and found two screaming babies laying in a crater. There were no towns, let alone houses, for miles. Except for hers, but she was also the first person people blamed if a child went missing and they had yet to turn up. She figured out quickly that we weren't normal because we were crawling and then walking within days. Bryn and I looked almost like we do now within a few weeks, much to her dismay," he added with a sympathetic grimace.

"He said you grew up fast but not that fast!" Everly replied in awe.

"We were lucky she was the one who had found us. She kept us hidden until we were ready to find our own glory. We went back when it was her time and carried her spirit on together."

"That's really nice," Everly noted. "You two were adults within weeks?"

Arawn nodded and shrugged. "We aren't sure what stopped it or what causes us to age so slowly now. Aside from our ancestors and our destinies, obviously. But we reached…this." He gestured at himself. "And time began to move at a crawl for us."

Everly was about to ask if it was better after he found Fletcher but the front door opened and he forgot. "Bryn!" he cried and leapt at him. "I missed you so much and all hell broke loose!"

"It did?" Bryn asked.

"What?" Nox said as he stepped around them and looked for Nelson.

He was coming down the stairs and grimaced at Nox in warning. "I need you to stay very calm and focus on the fact that he's already doing much better ," Nelson stated slowly and clearly, but Nox's eyes were wide as he searched the foyer.

"Why? What happened, Nelson?" he asked as his voice grew louder and more suspicious.

Everly heard Nelson whisper a prayer. "It's Tony. The same thing that attacked Everly and Ronan O'Sullivan?—"

" My Tony?" Nox yelled and dashed up the stairs. "I'll kill Hugh if that thing hurt Tony!" He went the wrong way when he reached the top of the stairs, sprinting to the right. "Tony?" he called as he opened a door, then shut it and ran across the gallery to check the other end of the hall before another door was thrown open. "Tony? What the hell happened?" they heard him cry when he found the right door and Nelson sighed as he went to calm Nox down.

Bryn shook his head, looking angry and worried. "Anything else break loose while we were gone?" he asked and Arawn sighed as he nodded at Everly.

"He didn't move until Tony happened. Ev's been watching the door since you left. He took a few potty breaks, but we had to bring him snacks and juice," he said and stopped Bryn before he could ask. "I am not joking."

"He is not joking," Everly confirmed. "I was so worried the visit would go poorly and we'd lose one of you."

Bryn shook his head, laughing softly as he squeezed Everly nice and tight. "I missed you too. I thought we'd have to camp in Beartown but Merlin was just as determined as I was to get home as fast as we could. He practically ran down the mountain."

Arawn chuckled as he offered him a fist bump. "Glad you all made it back in one piece. How did the visit with Dùbhghlas go?" he asked, earning a long, hard look from Bryn. "That bad?" Arawn asked, his gaze switching between Merlin and Bryn.

"Worse," Merlin said while hanging his cape. "It's as I suspected: Hugh Dùbhghlas has taught a changeling how to use dark magick and suck souls. Let's make sure poor Tony is on the mend and then we can share what we found in the mountains."

Thanks to Arawn's efforts, Tony was more lucid and Nox and Merlin were able to question him more thoroughly. They spent hours with Arawn in the guest room, treating Tony and feeding him, but he was still drained and fading so they let him rest.

"I can't make any sense of it, a changeling attacking a human," Merlin said once they had adjourned to the study.

"But you were able to confirm it?" Nelson had his notebook out and was scribbling. "Dùbhghlas has a changeling like Everly. How old is he?" he asked and Merlin let out a loud Ha!

" It is nothing like our Everly. It's…the anti-Everly."

"How?" Nelson asked, looking around.

Nox hissed as he headed for the decanters. He poured a drink and handed it to Merlin. "This changeling is undead. Looks like he was in the ground for a while," he said and Everly covered his mouth to hold in a startled yelp.

"He died?" he verified and began to cry when Nox nodded. "Oh, no!"

"Sorry," Bryn said as he put an arm around Everly. He raised two fingers and pointed at himself and Everly when Nox held up another tumbler. "Douchebag's changeling is an abomination and he should answer for it. After we deal with this little Abhartach." He shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe that…speck of zombie took a shot at me in the Nothing. And had me down for a moment," he added, making Merlin hum.

"Fae magic can be very powerful and volatile. There's no telling how many fae souls and how much fae magic it's gathered."

"I could see it," Bryn growled and his lip curled. "It didn't have a soul of its own but I could see the faded bits of the souls it stole."

Merlin scowled into his glass as he sipped, then turned to Fletcher. "Dr. Bixby, we have a much better idea of who you'll be hunting for," he said and Fletcher became alert.

"Tell me everything you know about our victim," he replied, earning a wry snort from Merlin.

"A victim to be sure but for once, I am hoping you'll find an autopsy."

"That might be one of the grimmest things I've ever heard," Fletcher murmured with a slow shake of his head. "I want to take notes," he said as he headed for the desk and Merlin went to the sofa and fell back with a loud groan.

"I want to be unconscious in an hour and Jeff is on his way so you had better write quickly," he warned. "The child was a male, six or seven but it's very hard to tell. It was a beautiful child and very small. The left leg was badly injured before its death and it needed glasses when it was a human."

Nelson raised a hand, interrupting. "How do you know?" he asked and received a confused look from Merlin.

"It didn't have eyes, Nelson. Just black, empty sockets. Why would it bother with glasses unless it was used to wearing them when it was alive? It was wearing the pajamas it had been buried with as well so that would not suggest that much thought was given to the body's appearance before burial. That tells us a great deal about where it might have come from and how many decent relatives it had."

"I see," Nelson murmured, writing quickly. "What about the ‘father' thing? Bryn told us it called itself ‘father.'"

"Right!" Merlin beamed at Nelson. "You always remember the most important facts, even when you don't know how very important they are." He allowed Nelson to blush and mutter a denial, then Merlin looked around him. " Neamh-mairbh means ‘the made undead . ' As I said before, we are not hunting for one of Buffy's vampires. This kind of vampire is made with dark magick, not through the sharing of blood."

"So?" Bryn asked with a shrug. "We already knew it wasn't a blood-sucking vampire, like in the movies."

Nox held up a finger, his eyes twinkling. "That's a pretty big clue, though! It calls itself Abhartach, a self-made vampire and the father of the made undead. Of course, it wants a big family, it was an orphan. Now, it wants to be the one in charge so it can wreak havoc on the people or the world that rejected it. Super basic stuff and poor little guy," he said sadly, then turned to Merlin. "But it's telling us itself that it was made undead. It had a creator."

"It had a creator," Everly whispered to himself as he looked at Bryn and then at Nox.

Merlin clapped at Nox appreciatively. "It had a creator! And like most created abominations, it has stayed close to the laboratory where it was made. There is no way Hugh Dùbhghlas can deny his responsibility for this and he will be held accountable."

"His intentions were pretty obvious, too," Nox said, shaking his head and clicking his teeth. "He didn't resurrect that monstrosity out of kindness and he didn't accidentally teach it dark magick and how to suck souls. If it's as much like Everly as we believe, it absorbed that knowledge and the magick that made it undead. It's learning and growing more powerful every day and with every changeling's soul that it steals."

Everly gulped loudly. "What are we going to do? We can't let it steal more souls!" He was pulled close and burrowed into Bryn's side as he rubbed Everly's shoulder.

"Trust me, I won't let those souls stay stolen. We'll put a stop to this Abhartach and send those poor souls on to glory."

There were chants of glory all around and glasses were raised, but Everly couldn't ignore the concern building in his gut and making his tummy ache.

"Fletcher will give us more clues about how it was made," Merlin mused before draining his glass and passing it back to Nox. " If he can find the poor changeling child's autopsy and records," he continued as he kissed Nox's cheek. "Jeff will be here momentarily. Call if there's any change with Tony." Nelson obediently offered his cheek before Merlin wished them all a good evening and left.

Nelson claimed the first shift and would keep an eye on Tony while everyone headed off to bed. But Everly could hear Nox pacing in the hall and running up and down the stairs while Bryn showered.

"Let's get some rest. We can't do anything else for Tony tonight." Bryn patted the bed next to him.

"I can help Nox, though. He's very worried and angry. Nelson said Nox might go nuclear but I didn't think he could get angry like that."

Bryn laughed wryly and nodded. "I didn't think so either and I'm glad he's handling it this well," he said with a nod at the hallway. "The only thing that's going to help Nox is helping Tony. We can't help anyone if we're too worn out to think straight. Let's get some rest and attack this with clearer minds in the morning."

That made more sense than pacing with Nox and being a pest so Everly climbed into bed and snuggled under the covers with Bryn. "Am I an abomination too?" he asked Bryn softly, afraid he was the last one to figure it out.

"No," Bryn said firmly as he pointed at Everly. "You heard what Merlin said, he's the anti-you because you're good and beautiful. That thing…" he shivered and there was a low growl as he held Everly tighter and nuzzled his cheek. "I took one look at it and I knew it didn't belong here, that it was vile. Douchebag broke laws of nature and magick when he brought that thing back to life. He should have left it dead."

"But I was dead and you brought me back to life. Nox said I was practically dead when you brought me here, that I was like that for days."

"Oh, Ev…" Bryn groaned against his temple. "You didn't die die. You…wanted to and you gave up for a moment but your body held on. You just needed more coaxing to wake up is all. But you weren't dead. Not like that."

"Not like that," Everly repeated and frowned as he calculated. "All those changelings' souls, we can free them and you and Arawn can take them to glory if it dies?" he asked carefully, trying to understand and find a way to help. He hadn't been very useful to Bryn and their friends since they had saved him. And Everly really wanted this soul thief to rot in the frozen misery of the Nothing for the rest of eternity.

"We're not totally sure because this Abhartach is new, but that's how it should work." Bryn crossed his fingers and whispered a silent wish in Welsh.

Everly nodded. "You all have been right about everything else. I know you're right about this."

Bryn laughed softly as he traced Everly's cheek, stirring Everly's desire and making his heart tickle. "Not everything and I hope your faith isn't misplaced. I was very wrong about Nox and Merlin, but we're facing the unknown and I don't just mean with the Abhartach. No one knows what Nox is, except him and maybe Nelson. I don't think Merlin's totally sure either. We haven't seen anything like Nox in a really long time and he isn't in a rush to test out his new powers."

"He's very happy with his life the way it is," Everly noted, smiling. "I would like a life like that and I wouldn't give it up for anything," he said and Bryn's hand paused as it brushed through Everly's hair.

"You know, I wouldn't either." He kissed Everly until he was dizzy, then helped him out of his T-shirt. "I couldn't understand before but I do now, because I have you. Nox was raised to value love and family and he yearned for those things. All I've ever cared about was duty and glory and Arawn. Now, I care about you, then duty and glory and Arawn."

"I care about you and then Arawn and the others. I just want glory so I can be with you," Everly informed Bryn, but there was an ache in his tummy when he thought about the other changelings. "They shouldn't have stolen all those souls. Their lives were already so sad, if they were like me."

"We're going to stop them," Bryn promised.

Everly smiled at him. "And make them pay?"

"That's right."

"I want to help this time," Everly said and Bryn nodded.

"Of course, but you've already been lots of help."

Everly narrowed his eyes at Bryn. "You don't have to say that. I know that I'm not good at much and that I usually need first aid when I go outside. But I want to help and I want glory so I can stay with you and Arawn and Fletcher."

Bryn shushed him softly. "You hopped into the Nothing and showed us what was possible and what to look for. We never would have guessed this monster was another changeling and it was a game changer, knowing it had help from a powerful witch and a necromancer," he said, then snorted. "We wouldn't have even known that changelings were disappearing or that Douchebag had that creepy Abhartach kid if it weren't for you."

"I helped!" Everly squeezed Bryn as tight as he could.

He was ecstatic and proud of himself until he heard a door shut and footsteps in the hall. He recalled that Nox and Nelson were in for a long night and despite what any of the others might say, it was Everly who had brought Hugh's monster to Georgetown. And Tony wouldn't have been attacked if Everly had told someone about the scary child he had seen.

"I should take the next shift."

Eventually, Everly drifted off to sleep but the scary child followed and his dreams were dark and cold and filled with screams and the pained howls of burning hounds.