Sunny - Mona Lisa Awakening

Once we were on the floor, it wasn't even necessary to look at the room numbers. I just listened for the slow heartbeat and followed it down a corridor to the last room. Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the open door and entered, Gryphon and Chami behind me.

He looked so young and fragile. The other bed was unoccupied, neatly made up. Scrapes and bruises marked Thaddeus's face and arms. A brand-new, creamy white fiberglass cast encased his right arm.

"Yes?" his flat voice demanded.

How did one introduce oneself? "My name is Mona Lisa. I just found out about your accident and came here to see you."

"I don't know you," Thaddeus said, his face and voice devoid of emotion. "Did you know my parents?" he asked more softly.

"No. I…" Reaching beneath my shirt, I drew out my silver cross. "Does this mean anything to you?"

Recognition sparked in his eyes briefly before he blanked them. "Who are you?"

I turned my cross over. "The back has my name and something else on the bottom."

"Monère," Thaddeus said without expression. So he'd been able to see it, too.

"Does that mean anything to you?" I asked.

Dark intelligent eyes swept over me in careful assessment, then moved on to study the two men behind me. "No."

"This cross was the only thing that identified me when I was left on the steps of Our Lady of Lourdes Orphanage as a baby. Did your parents tell you that you were adopted?" I asked quietly.

"Who are you?" There was a new hard edge to his voice, a wary boy thrown early into manhood, so heartbreakingly different from the carefree kid I'd glimpsed just the day before.

"I'm your sister."

Thaddeus didn't challenge or deny the statement. Just complete and utter silence. There was the faintest trembling in his left hand before he curled it into a tight fist.

"We have the same mother and I believe the same father. Our eyes… they had to have come from him." Because they hadn't come from our mother.

Thaddeus said nothing.

"Did your adopted parents have any brothers, sisters, parents?" I asked.

Thaddeus shook his head. "No, they were only children. No living parents or grandparents. Only distant relations."

"Anyone you can go to? That you want to live with?"

"No," said Thaddeus, slowly. "I was going to ask a neighbor to become my legal guardian tor the two years that I needed one. Live in my own apartment. Continue in school."

It wasn't a bad plan. He was old enough to drive and to get a job if he needed to. It would be safer than living with me. But, oh how I wanted him with me.

The intensity of that desire shook my voice. "I would like, very much, for you to come and live with me. But if you did, it would disrupt your entire life." I immediately castigated myself over my bad choice of words. As if his life wasn't entirely disrupted already. "I'm moving to New Orleans to take up a position there. And there are a lot of other complicated things besides that," I finished lamely.

Something flickered in Thaddeus's dark eyes then was gone. I wondered at such control in one so young. And wondered why he would need it.

"Who are they?" Thaddeus asked, his gaze flicking to Chami and Gryphon.

How to answer? Guard. Lover. "They are special friends who live with me… along with six others." I paused, helpless, unsure of what else to say. "Do you still wish to know more?"

"You were there the other day. Outside my house," Thaddeus said suddenly.

"Why… yes."

At my admission, hot emotion darkened his eyes… triumph or relief, perhaps. I felt a brief flare of power so quickly reined in that I would have thought I'd imagined it but for the fact that Chami and Gryphon instantly moved forward to my side.

"He is like you," Gryphon said in a low voice. "More."

Another brief spurt of energy emanated from Thaddeus.

My brother had an amazing ability to shield or suppress his power, I realized, that cracked only when he felt strong emotions.

"Release your control, Thaddeus," I said quietly. "Let me reel you."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

I searched those eyes so like mine and wondered if he spoke true. Did Thaddeus really not know what he did? Did his power scare him so much that he was in denial? Or was it an unconscious suppression?

"Are there things different about you from other people?" I asked gently. "Can you hear things, see things others can't? jump farther, run faster? See better at night? Are you stronger than others?"

"How did you know?" Thaddeus whispered shakily.

"Because I'm the same way, as are Gryphon and Chami here."

Thaddeus expelled a trembling breath. "I thought I was going crazy these past several months. That maybe insanity ran in my genes. I'd always had an active imagination."

"No, it's very real," I assured him. "Insanity doesn't run in our blood," — at least I hoped it didn't—"but other things do. From the time I could remember, I was a little quicker, faster, stronger than others. Just slightly enough for it to pass as advanced physical development when I was young. But the abilities grew and blossomed beyond the point where they could be considered normal when I hit puberty at thirteen. I reached puberty later than other girls."

Thaddeus didn't say anything, just listened to me with hard attention.

"I always knew I was different, but never why until I met others like me a couple of weeks ago. Since then, my whole world has changed into one that is much more dangerous and deadly. But I have never been happier." I hesitated. "Do you want to know, really know, what you are?"

"What, not who," Thaddeus observed dispassionately. "Why were you outside my house?"

"I'd just discovered where you lived. I wanted to see if you were well."

"Why did you leave without making yourself known to me?"

"You were well, happy, loved. There was no need to disrupt your life."

"I was loved but not well. Not mentally," Thaddeus said. "And yes, I would like to know."

And so I told him. About the Monère, about Full Bloods and Mixed Bloods.

"You can shift into animal form?" Thaddeus asked, natural skepticism warring with a desire to believe.

I smiled. "Only some of us. I do not possess that ability, though Gryphon does."

Locking his eyes on Gryphon, Thaddeus demanded, "Show me."

"It would be easier to allow Chami to demonstrate his gift," I said, turning to the slender man beside me. "If you don't mind, Chami."

Chami grinned, bringing a wolfish cast to his sharp features. "Not at all, milady," he said and disappeared.

"Holy shit!" Thaddeus exclaimed, his face pale.

Chami reappeared and bowed with a flourish like an actor on stage.

"Thank you, Chameleo," I said, my lips twitching.

Thaddeus came to an abrupt decision. "Get me out of here."

"How long did the doctors want to keep you?" I asked cautiously.

"There's nothing wrong with me but for a broken arm and a mild concussion. They're only keeping me overnight because there was no one to observe me at home for twenty-four hours. They're getting a social worker involved tomorrow," Thaddeus said quietly.

That decided it. It would be much easier keeping him out of the system in the first place rather than trying to extricate him out of it later.

"You may have to sign out against medical advice," I warned.

"No," Thaddeus corrected. "As my sister and closest of kin, you will. You're over twenty-one, right?"

"I am twenty-one."

"Good enough," Thaddeus declared and depressed the call button to summon a nurse.

"Would you like to come live with me in New Orleans?" I asked.

"Come with me to my home," Thaddeus invited. "Let me spent the next few days with you and your other 'special friends' before I decide."

"All of them?" I asked.