Aria seemed confused, but was still attempting to keep up.
“We call them shifters,” he tried to explain without going off topic too much. “Not everyone can do it, it takes years of training to work up to that point. The ones who can’t, we call them nons.”
“Nons?”
“Yeah, basically someone like us but can’t change forms.”
“Can you?”
He nodded, “I can.”
“Often?”
“About once or twice a week, while I trained with kids.”
“So you started young?”
“You kind of have to. If you don’t, then there’s no chance at shifting later on in life especially for some kids. You have to detect it early.”
“What happens if you don’t?”
“Then they end up as a non.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
He shook his head. “No, but it’s like losing a little more of our history, of our culture.”
“Oh, so it’s like self-preservation?”
“Yeah, you could think of it like that.”
“Okay.” Aria fidgeted with her hands. “So, anything else I should know about . . . your people?”
He bit his lip. This was probably the hard part. “Do you believe in soul mates?”
“Soul mates?”
“Yeah.” Adrian really didn’t want to scare her. “We have them.”
“In what kind of context?”
“Well, for us, a soul mate is a person you share a soul with. It’s entirely involuntary and no one is excluded from that.”
She seemed wary. “What does that mean for the other person?”
“A soul mate doesn’t have to be romantic. It can be platonic or familial. A soul mate is just someone who understands us best.”
“I see.”
“And they’re usually kept within our kind.”
“So there’s a lot of you guys?”
He nodded. “A lot more than you might originally think.”
“Alright, interesting. So what happens when this soul mate isn’t one of you guys?”
“It gets difficult, but it also depends on the person.”
Aria waited for him to continue.
“So when one of us meets our soul mate, it’s like finding the missing piece of a puzzle to our life. It makes our lives a little more complete. If we don’t meet them then that doesn’t mean our lives are any less fulfilling. It’s just not entirely complete.”
“Does it matter what kind of relationship you would have with the other person?”
“A positive one would be ideal.” He laughed humorlessly.
“Obviously, but that’s not what I meant.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just a lot to tell you all at once especially out of the blue with zero preparation.”
She seemed apologetic. “Sorry.”
“It is what it is at this point. I just wished I had time to gather my thoughts. Maybe make a PowerPoint or two.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I would’ve put in charts and graphs, maybe even a few photos for reference. Y’know, visualization.”
“You’re so stupid.” Aria snickered a little bit which lightened the mood by a margin.
“Well, if it works, it works.”
She didn’t humor him for much longer. “Yeah, yeah.”
“So back to the heavy topic?”
“Back to the heavy topic.”
“Okay, fine.”
“What happens if you don’t have a good relationship with your soul mate?” she asked.
Adrian thought about his dad.
“Then it might’ve been better to never have met them.”
“That bad?”
“Well, when someone you care about hates your guts, and you can’t change that no matter what you say, how would you feel?”
“That’s . . .”
“Yeah, it’s rough. Thankfully, most of us don’t have that problem, but the ones that do . . .” He swallowed. “It’s real f*cking scary.”
She didn’t reply.
“So you have a human soul mate?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Do I know this person?”
“Yeah, you do.”
“Oh.”
He hummed. “It’s scary to think about, right? To think that I might’ve almost been better off not knowing.”
“Do they hate you?”
“No, well, I hope not.”
Aria pursed her lips. “Did you tell them?”
“I might’ve let it slip.”
“How did they react?”
“Confused,” he said after a moment. “I don’t know.”
“Are you the only one in your pack to have a human soul mate?”
He shook his head. “I just found out someone else does too, but their relationship is really strained.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“So where does my mom fall into this?”
“That, I’m not entirely sure. Most of what I know is pretty bare bones, but your mom knew about us. She was friends with someone from a different pack, and she must’ve known something pretty important.”
“Are you saying that someone was trying to kill her?” Aria’s voice got a lot softer.
“It’s speculation and there are things I can’t tell you, but not everyone believes it was just an accident.”
“Who’s everyone?”
“My dad, the person from the other pack, and someone else.”
“Why would your dad think that?” Aria seemed to create a connection. “How does my dad know yours?”
He wet his lips. “I just found out, but my dad and your dad were really close. They were like brothers.”
“Like brothers . . . our dads?”
“Yeah. Small world.”
“But why would your dad think that someone wanted my mom dead?”
“Well, the original accident. It wasn’t a regular hit and run. Your mom didn’t pass immediately so our guess is that they wanted to keep her alive—”
“To get the information out of her,” Aria finished. “Who the f*ck does that?”
Adrian didn’t know.
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why our dads hate each other.”
“They don’t hate each other—”
“The talk in the ER and that phone call couldn’t convince me otherwise.” She crossed her arms in self-defense.
“Well my dad doesn’t hate your dad.” Adrian wanted to say that his dad was physically unable to do that, but Adrian refrained. “It’s just that there’s a misunderstanding, and the timing didn’t help.”
“You’re not going to tell me what it is?”
“It’s kinda invasive.”
“I
