Chapter 2

Even as Katherine walked up to the house carrying her bag she kept getting flashes of Birdy having wings for arms. Almost a strobe light effect spaced out once every minute or so, just a quick pop of otherness. This wasn't the first time she had hallucinations focused on other people or places, so she was used to ignoring the occasional image as it happened. For about six months in her junior year she kept seeing a Brazilian transfer student as a humanoid jaguar till she left to go back to her home in South America.

Once they climbed the steps from the drive to the front door Kat took the time to properly greet her Uncle's housekeeper. She wasn't prepared for the older Greek woman to recoil from the sound of her voice. A slight bow to George and Birdy disappeared at a quick trot into the house. Katherine wasn't sure what to make of that reaction, was it an insult? Did she have foul breath?

"Uh, I'm not sure what that was about Kat. Your room is at the end of the hall on the left, there is a bathroom next to it you can use. If you'll excuse me I'll go check on Birdy."

Katherine went up the steps of the split level home, into the living room while her Uncle went downstairs to check on Birdy. The living room was about what you would expect from a single man who had someone to clean up after him. A little spartan with lots of electronics taking up one wall, comfortable chairs and a sofa in dark colors. Thankfully no dead animal heads adorned the walls or end tables. Two steps on the fair side led up to a second living room or maybe it was a sun room, Kat wasn't real familiar with single family houses having never lived anywhere else but the school that she could remember. A short hall led off the left side of the living room to her room, that is where she went to unpack her belongings.

Downstairs George found Birdy in her room. She was sitting at her dressing table facing away from the doorway, fussing with the hair in her bun trying to make it tighter or something. George stood there for a moment watching the woman who had taken care of him for more than thirty years. Thirty years and she hadn't aged a day that he could see. He still remembered the day his mentor brought him to this house and introduced him to then Mark's housekeeper. She hadn't darted off that day. What could be different about Kat that would drive Birdy into hiding now?

"Birdy, what's wrong? Why'd you leave like that?"

"I'm sorry Mr Ruxton, she scared me when she spoke. Do you really want to talk about this? We've left a lot unsaid over the years, especially since Mr. Andrews came back injured from that business trip."

"Unlike most of the world I can only bury my head in the sand so much Birdy. If there is a problem with Kat I need to know about it."

"I've never really said anything before, but you know that most who aren't human experience the world in a different way. My people are like yours for the most part, but we hear the aether's harmonics. When you leave on a trip I hear your tools humming in their cases, singing for blood. Kat speaks with two voices, her human one and the voice of the vetala. A vetala, shouldn't be in a living body. It shouldn't be possible, they control the dead to stay in this world."

"If she is a vetala, she's the second I have seen in a living body. The first was the one who took my sister's body after she went into a coma. I think she died in that car accident and then the vampire was able to take her shell because her soul had already moved on to where ever it is that souls go. For months after she came out of that coma she acted differently, disappearing for days at a time. She was slow to remember things and no one was really comfortable around her. It stopped for awhile when she got pregnant but then after the baby was born it was even worse." George sat on the bed as he talked to Birdy. It was like he had been waiting to say this for years. He could go weeks without talking to his housekeeper, just living in silence. Through the whole speech Birdy stayed facing the mirror but her hands were still.

"I was still in training then so it was Mark who put everything together then followed the vetala to be positive of what it was. She was draining the life from college kids in the harbor bars on the weekend. Not killing them but taking years off their lives so she wouldn't kill her daughter when she touched her. Well not killing at first, the older Kat got the more energy Natalie seemed to need to keep her safe. People started to die, that's when we stepped in to put her down. I have never done anything so hard as killing the creature that was my sister. I put Kat in the convent school in the hopes that the sisters would keep her from being a monster. I think they've done it regardless of what's in her, she's no monster!"

When George went to find his niece she was putting the last of her things away. When she turned to see him his eyes had a slight golden glow to them, something they had never done before when he visited her. The late afternoon light seemed to sparkle off his irises, as he stood in the doorway watching her.

"You all right Uncle George? Your eyes are a little funny."

"Huh? Oh I just put my contacts in. They make my eyes feel funny so I don't wear them often, only when I want to see better than normal." he was a little distracted by the slight black shimmer coming off Kat's bare skin. It was faint like watching the heat coming off your shadow outside in the winter. She was definably more than human, but how much more? Then it came to him she could see his inscribed lenses. She could see more than normal without artifacts, this might make life hard on her. One of humanity's greatest defenses and weaknesses was its ability to be completely oblivious to the things that it didn't consider correct with the universe. Whether it was elves streaking down a city street on the backs of wild hogs (they looked like young punks on mini bikes to those who even saw them a little) or it was a demon draining the youth from a man in alley (most saw two lovers kissing) humanity refused to see.