Feeling the Way, CH 21 (Patreon)

The sign over the door read “The Lost and Found,” and under it “Non-Denominational shelter.”

“I suppose that it makes sense for your contact to run a shelter if he knows illegals.”

“He doesn’t run it.”

I followed Marrows in.

The room was large, long tables with men, and women seated at them. A food counter on the left had a lineup of people. I searched among those serving the food. One of the workers also made sense, but I noticed Marrows looking over those seated at the tables before moving.

We attracted stares and aggressive non-stares. Some wondered what we were doing here, others didn’t want us here. It was their place, not ours. We had money. We should be where money hangs-out.

Marrows’ destination was a table with few people, and as we got closer, they left until only a squirrel was eating what looks like meatloaf with roasted potatoes. Next to the tray was a stick the length of a hand with a variety of things stuck into it: half a penny, the undercarriage of a toy car. A few nails, stones.

I froze. I’d heard about them. Except…

“Don’t worry,” the squirrel said, “it doesn’t do anything.”

I haven’t had any contact with the Children of Merlin, but I’ve heard the stories. Considering it’s basically their fault the world knows magic exists, how could I not. Read about the Diamond Incident; it’s what I did.

“Donal, meet Wyatt Orr,” the badger said, sitting down. “Wyatt, this is Donal, Son of Merlin, expert at finding things and purposely homeless.”

The squirrel rolled his eyes. “You make it sound like it’s a character flaw.”

“You have magic, Donal. You can conjure yourself out of this.”

“And go where? Not everyone’s like you. I don’t need to dress like that, have that car.” He shook his head. “Anyway, these people need someone who relates to them if they’re going to come ask for help. It isn’t like your kind is going to listen to their problem.”

“I would,” I said, sitting.

Donal snorted. “I thought you were an Orr.”

“I am.”

“Then don’t bother lying to me. I might be homeless, but I am plugged into the magical community.” He tapped the phone in his breast pocket. From the little I saw of it, I could tell it was old and worn. Like decades old.

“Then you need to update your information,” Marrows said. “Wyatt is the one who cares.”

The squirrel looked me over. “I didn’t think that was a thing.”

I shrugged.

“So, what do you want, Marrows?”

“It’s not me, it’s him.”

“But you’re the one offering the favor.”

“I don’t do favors,” I answered before I could stop myself. “And Marrows didn’t run this by me.”

“I thought you were the one who cares,” Donal said, smirking.

“I would have told you what I need. You’d have told me what you need from me in return. I wouldn’t have made it sound like some big thing.”

“Okay, are you sure he’s an Orr?”

“He’s the defective model,” Marrows replied, and grinned at my growl.

“Okay, I see what you’re doing, Tom. And not in here. Stop winding him up, or at least wait until you’re outside. The people here don’t need that kind of show.”

“Oh, he takes a lot longer than the rest of his family to wind up,” Marrows said. “I doubt I’ll get him there until after we’re done with all this.”

“Okay, but in spite of what he just said, you offered the favor. So you’re on the hook for it.” The badger nodded and Donal turned to me. “Alright, what do you need my help with?”

I gave Marrows a last glare before focusing on the squirrel. “Eight years ago, a serial killer came to Denver. The only name I’ve found for him is Steven Mullen, but it’s doubtful it’s his real name. He’s a jaguar. He targets boys between six and ten. I’ve had people looking into every law enforcement server for hints of him, but there’s nothing there.”

“Maybe he didn’t do anything. With one full-time champion in the city, and a second dropping in every so often, it takes a lot of balls to do anything big here.”

“How is Grant doing?” Marrows asked.

Donal shrugged. “We have an arrangement. He doesn’t bother me when he’s in town, and I don’t go around telling everyone what he is. You know how he feels about his role. He hates it even more than Denton does. Grant and responsibility were never going to be easy cohabitants.”

Marrows rolled his eyes. “He is going to realize he cared way before he got the job. He’s like Brislow. If he wasn’t, the Hertz wouldn’t have survived Raphael.”

The quick exchange annoyed me because it pointed out I didn’t know as much as I wanted. The Grant they were speaking of had to be Merlin’s champion, since, as far as anyone knew, there were only two champions still existing. Damian was one, but being the back stabber he was, he took over his god’s role and then vanished.

It was the casual way they were talking about him, about the Brislow Elder. Marrows sounded like he was on a first name basis with both champions, which shouldn’t surprise me. The badger had always been very casual with his show of respects. But Donal didn’t look like someone an elder would interact with, let along should interact with, and he was mentioning him by his first name with a similar lever of respect Marrows is using.

“Maybe we should stick with him,” Donal said. “You can drop by again when you two are done and we can talk more.”

Marrows looked around. “How about I pick you up and take you back to my place?”

“There’s a motel that charges by the hour two blocks from here, Tom. No need to drive to the other side of the city.”

I almost laughed at the horrified expression on the badger’s face, and Donal looked at me. “Like I said, maybe he just passed through without doing anything.”

“That isn’t the sense I got from the person who helped him in Amarillo. He made it sound like Wanna Be was coming here with a purpose.”

“Oh, please tell me someone else named him that.”

“I pretty much made it up,” I answered, unsure why he seemed agitated.

“Fuck.”

“It’s just a name,” Marrows said, and the squirrel glared at him.

“You know names have powers, right?”

The badger rolled his eyes.

“In some faction,” I said before Marrows could open his mouth, “their name is linked to them so tightly and any use of it makes it easier to bind the magic to them.” Not quite magic 101, but relatively common knowledge.

Donal looked at me in disbelief. “Okay, let me ask you this. Is my cum any less useful to you because I don’t follow your god? Is any guy in this room immune to your magic, should you get your hand on their cum because they don’t follow a god?”

“No, of course not,” I replied. “Cum is part of your life force. It’s a direct line to you.”

He nodded. “Then why is it that you think names only affect ‘certain factions’?”

“Because if it worked for everyone, Marrows there would have tried something on me by now.”

Donal let out a breath. “Okay, clearly we’re not talking about the same thing. When I say name, I don’t mean just ‘Wyatt Orr’. That’s just your name. I’m talking about Name. The entirety of who you are. The essence of you, if you will. That’s real, no matter what faction you are. Yes, not everyone can make use of it, just like only your faction uses cum. But it’s still real.”

“But what does that have to his with Wanna Be?” Marrows asked, and Donal stared at him. “Now what?” the badger said in exasperation.

Donal looked at me again. “You don’t hear it, do you?”

“Hear what?”

“The difference when he says it.”

I narrowed my eyes. “It’s his voice, not mine. If that’s what you’re referring to.”

The squirrel shook his head. “No, when you say it, I hear a resonance in the name. Somehow you’ve connected to him.”

“How? I’m not aware of knowing any jaguars who hid being serial killers.”

“That would be the point of hiding it,” Marrows said.

“He might not be someone you know. That isn’t how naming works. I think that you Named him.”

“No, I just called him that because everything he’s been doing is an imitation of what we do, mixed in with a bit of others, possibly. Like he wants to be one of us.”

“But you also believe that’s what he is. Maybe at first it was just words you put together, but you aren’t calling him Wants To Be. You’re calling him Wanna Be. Somewhere along the way, your perception of who he is shifted. I think that you connected with him, or as close to it as can happen with this level of diffuse magic.”

“But names aren’t one of my god’s things. He’s blood, cum, vitality.”

“No one has dominion over names,” Donal stated.

“How do you know?” Marrows asked.

“Okay, I don’t actually know that, but it feels right. I’ve seen names used across multiple factions. If one god had dominion, it would almost ensure only their followers could use them.”

“Like us and cum,” the badger said.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s assume you’re right. What does it mean?”

“That I can’t tell. I can hear the link, but I’m not even sure why I can.” He glanced at the stick on the table, turned it until a name tag became visible, then shook his head. “No, even if somehow we could make staves again, mine was about finding the lost, not anything to do with names.” He became thoughtful. “Maybe I’m somehow linked into this too.”

“Does that mean your help comes without me owing you a favor?” Marrows asked hopefully.

“Dream on. I need it, so I’m taking it. But with all that, we haven’t addressed what you need of me.”

“We need you to talk with the illegals in the city,” I said. “They’re the most likely group Wa—the jaguar would have targeted. I need to know the boys who were taken and anything surrounding the kidnappings they remember.”

Donal nodded. “You understand that’s not going to be quick. Even if I only ask the communities in Kendrick Lake, I’m looking at hundreds of families, and something tells me he was smart enough to not limit his victims to one community.”

“I wouldn’t worry about time,” Marrows said. “I’m sure I can prod Wyatt into keeping us busy.”

The squirrel snorted. “I have a better idea. No, I’m not playing your game Tom. I have enough of violence on the street. You promise me a night of tenderness and we’ll talk about it.” He pulled a pencil worn down to a stub, and a ripped piece of paper to wrote an address on. “There’s been a rise in homeless disappearances around that building. I’ve looked into it as best as I can, but all I could find out is that every so often one of us is allowed in through a back door, and they never come out. Make it stop.”

“Are you sure they simply don’t exit when you weren’t looking?” I asked and get the kind of glare in return that told me I was an idiot for even considering he didn’t have ways of knowing if someone left when he wasn’t around.

“I have wards around the building,” he said in the tone a parent uses with a slow child. “While we were sitting here talking, one of us went in. If anyone that crossed the wards in one directions crosses it in the other, I’d know. It’s never happened.” He tapped the address. “Make it stop.”

“You understand that I’m limited in what I can do, Donal,” Marrows said. “Even if Denton hadn’t put rules on me, I’m no longer the hired killer that I was.”

Donal smiled. “Tom, if there’s one person I trust to find a way to bend the rules a god has imposed on him, it’s you. And if you can’t. You have him. I’m told the Orrs are masters at mayhem and destruction.”

“Those are my brothers,” I grumbled.

“Then call them in,” Donal said. “Someone in there is hurting my people. That’s the price of my help.”

“We’ll make it happen,” Marrows said, and stood.

“We will,” I echoed, and followed him out. “You do know that if we blow up a building, we’re going to have two elders on our back,” I told the badger as we got in his car.

He was thoughtful as he started it. “You know,” he finally said, and my hackles stood right up. “I haven’t pissed off Cormoran to the point he’ll fuck me in quite a while. This might just get it to happen.”