Changeling: The Daughter of Fire (GxBxNB)

Changeling 36

We walked through the night and it was so beautiful, watching the car zip by on the street, the humming of the late night...

I was still pretty damned high.

And then there was Stephanie, wrapped in an aura like I'd never seen before, beautiful azure feathers had replaced her hair.

"Your feathers are so pretty, did you know that?" I reached out to her face, feeling her cheeks.

"You can see them?"

"Of course!" I let my fire out, "I'm a changeling too!" I giggled like an idiot, "what are you?" She looked away and I took her face, "I'm right here! What's a pretty bird like you?"

"I'm a Siren..."

"That's so cool!"

"No, it's not cool."

"Can you sing? I heard Siren sing so well!"

"It's... Complicated."

"I bet it's better than being a Djinn! It sucks! Everyone wants me to grant them their stupid wishes, and then I accidentally killed my best friend's mom when he wished for it and he got so damn mad and kicked me out!"

"I'm sorry..."

"We're almost there, you know, maybe you'd fit with us?"

"Us? Who's that?"

"I'll explain soon."

We came in front of a church and Stephanie passed the gate. We didn't go into the church per se, but rather to an old rectangular brick building only a few dozen yards away. A plaque above the door proudly designated it as 'St. George home for wayward youth,' circa 1819.

The inside was an old, somewhat worn-out common room with what had to be donated furniture, a small kitchenette, and one of those old blocky TVs. A corridor passed through the middle of the building, reaching a dozen rooms and a set of stairs.

"What's this place?"

"A shelter for changelings like me."

"Sirens?"

"No... Changelings who don't want to be changelings."

"Why would you want that?"

"Come on, Nadia, you can't tell me that being a changeling is all sunshine and rainbows."

My mind went to Liam's mom, Clarissa, the King, whatever Lucian was scheming...

"Maybe, what's so wrong about being a siren."

She slumped down in her seat. "Because when I use that power, it turns people crazy and obsessed with me to self-destructive levels... Like Odysseus wanting to jump into the water knowing they would drown in the hope of reaching the sirens."

"That sucks."

I followed Stephanie upstairs into a small bedroom for two, it was old, the walls cracked in a few places and that old granny's house smell hung in the air.

"Is this your room?"

"Yeah."

I sat down, feeling a little dizzy and tired all of a sudden. My throat felt dry as the Sahara desert.

"Can I have something to drink?"

Stephanie left and came back with a glass of water. I downed it in one go. Thanks."

"Looks like you're coming down."

"How bad is it gonna be?"

"You're gonna feel like absolute garbage."