Kenya and Ori followed him in, carrying mugs of coffee and curled up together on the sofa. The couple exuded an oddly sweet punk aura, but Aldric knew that they were two of the deadliest of his enforcers.
"I am not discounting the possibility that Honeyford hired vampire trackers," Aldric nodded. “That is, trackers that were vampires. I mentioned as much to Leo before he went off to do... whatever it is he does."
Aldric truly didn't want to know the details. Human laws were not always practical in helping to solve paranormal problems, but the digital ones made more sense to follow than the physical world ones, in Aldric's mind as they seemed to be largely about privacy. More likely he simply didn’t understand it all.
"That doesn't make sense," Ori spoke up. He had one arm wrapped around his wife and the other was gesturing with his coffee cup. "If Honeyford wanted to get his hands on sweet little Kaylee for transactional purposes," he scowled and cleared his throat before continuing, but failed to repress the growl that laced his words. "Then there would be no way he'd send vampire trackers. Those guys are fuckin' vicious. They'd do too much damage for what he planned, cause they wouldn’t care.”
Marc's snarling crescendoed and then, with a visible effort, he pulled his wolf back. "I believe you're right. I think there may be two different groups involved here."
"But why would vampires be after a little girl like that? I mean, there's a fucked up logic to Honeyford, at least, but..." Kenya shrugged and let the question hang in the air. “What benefit would it be to anyone else? Ransom?”
Faith shifted in her place, still leaning against Aldric's desk, and he rolled his chair closer to her, to put a hand on her arm. She glanced down at him and he could see the battle she was waging with herself. He knew that instinct and long practice told her to shrug and deflect, but there was a growing trust there, also.
Not just trust in Aldric himself, which humbled him enough as it was, but in Marc and the rest of the clan. Faith knew that the people in this room, as well as Tamika and the other enforcers, were the inner circle of the Frostwalker clan, and– he hoped, maybe– Faith was beginning to count herself as one of them.
He watched her suck her lips in to clamp them between her teeth for a long moment, before glancing over at Marc who was still debating with Kenya regarding who might be in their territory and why. Marc was doing a fine job of not revealing the Latham's secret, but still, Faith spoke up.
"Marc, I... I think we should tell them,” she said, almost too quietly to hear, but everyone else in the room had sharp, paranormal hearing, so they caught the words and silenced their own conversation. Marc stopped his pacing and turned to her with a worried frown.
"I mean, if you think it will help keep people safe, then it's okay. That's the most important thing." Faith went back to chewing her lip and looking nervous.
Aldric felt her shiver under his hand and had enough. He reached over and slid her off the desk and into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and holding her safe, and was gratified when her trembling eased and stopped.
"Are you certain?" he asked her, and she met his eyes steadily though she still chewed her lip, and nodded. He looked up to see Marc watching them, with an amused twinkle once again. The anxiety was not gone from his face, but apparently it was entertaining enough to watch his friend care for someone that it distracted him.
"You trust them, so I do too," she said.
“We’re honored to hear you say that, but it is your secret, Faith," Marc said gently. "It is yours to share or not."
Faith took a deep breath and nodded, then glanced around the room. Nobody said anything, waiting instead to see what she had to reveal to them, but not pushing. Then, settling her attention on the tray of snack foods, she drew another deep breath and held it for a moment, and the plate moved from one end of the coffee table to the other.
Ori's eyes grew huge and Kenya rocketed off the sofa to get her face right next to the dish and squinted at it.
"What the hell?" she muttered.
Faith swallowed then stretched out her hand, palm up, and stilled before a small flicker of fire danced up from her palm for a full minute as the wolves gaped at her. When she dropped her hand, the flame was gone and she seemed to shrink into herself, so Aldric pulled her close and rested her head on his shoulder where she immediately hid her face. It was not a simple thing to show off so spectacularly after living her whole life hiding this gift.
"The Latham sisters are Magaestra," Aldric said into the silence. Ori whistled low and Kenya sat heavily back onto the sofa, an expression of careful thought on her face.
"The girl, too?" Ori asked, bouncing his eyes between Aldric and Marc, who shook his head.
"No, not that we are aware of. From what I understand it is much like shifting in that young children have no abilities and they wouldn't know if she inherited the skill for another year or two," Marc said. He sat heavily in the arm chair on the other side of Aldric's desk and ran his fingers over his head. "Also, there is the fact that we suspect Honeyford is her biological father, so she may not have a mage's power anyway. Kaylee may be a shifter. She scents like a wolf, though faintly.“
"Hoo boy," Ori said and whistled
