“So, is that what Braze thought?” he asked at last, although Sara could tell he was not waiting for her answer. In any case, this was a man who followed his brother’s way of changing the subject without warning.
“That I came looking for him? Of course, he would think that. Always the center of the universe, everything depending on him, as usual.”
“Well, you can take this however you want, but he tells me your being here is calming to him,” she hesitated a second, then said, “I can see it when I look at him...as if some burden has been lifted away because of you.”
Clement looked at Sara, then spoke.
“Good for him. But, maybe you should try seeing it from my side. For Braze, even as young as we were before we were separated, he has always seen the world as if it revolves solely around him. As if he is the hub around which the rest of us turn.
“That’s one hell of an ego, if you ask me.”
Clement rubbed his chin then continued.
“It’s not his fault, really. I can recognize that. Our father is the one who put him up on a pedestal and then kicked me into the corner.
“You see, I’m not a wolf like them. My mother was human and my father took her in a moment of weakness. That’s how he said it. It was weakness and I was the result. That same weakness bred true in me, a man who cannot change into a beast...
“You want to hear my story? I doubt you’ll find it that interesting, and I can already tell you that it doesn’t finish with a happy ending. At least, not from where I’m sitting.”
Sara settled back in her seat and watched the man before her. His voice took on a story teller’s cadence as he recounted the tale of his life.
“I first saw him while I was in detention. A sort of detention, anyway. They didn’t use terms like that. Not good for their image, I suppose.
“My nose was broken and my fists were scraped bloody, but the other kid was taken away on a stretcher and we didn’t see hide nor hair of him for a couple of weeks.
“But, that sort of behavior, even if it happens from time to time among twelve year old boys, didn’t win me any points. I was the new kid. And, the rumor had spread like a red tide through the orphanage that my father had given me up...just like that.
“I suppose they wondered what I could have done to mess up something they themselves only dreamed of. Having a father, a real father, even if I had no memory of my mother.
“What none of them could have guessed is that I hadn’t done anything and that was exactly the problem. My father had waited years for something to manifest itself in me...but it never did.
“Only a week earlier, he had come into my bedroom in the middle of the night to drag me out of the mansion and into the car. I remember that I was scared and that part of it was because my father drove the car himself. As long as I could remember, I had never seen anyone drive but one of the chauffeurs attached to the house staff. Those guys were always on call, no matter what the hour, but there we were, my father deadly serious with the steering wheel in his hands as we drove off.
“We ended up going down a number of roads that ran deeper and deeper into the woods. What I know now is a forest.
“At the time, though, it felt like a sea of trees had surrounded us. More than I had ever seen before in my entire twelve years and their leafless branches scared me, too. Like thousands of thin fingers rising against the full moon, capable of ripping tiny bits of flesh away from anyone stupid enough to walk among them.
“After a while, the car ran out of road and we began walking. It was dark and I had no idea how my father could see. I kept stumbling and he kept hoisting me back up by the wrist with a hand that held on to me like a steel trap.
“We came to a clearing and we waited for a while. I didn’t dare speak as my father stood there, still as stone. Finally, a couple of old men came walking out of the trees.
“They were wearing grey robes and had enormous beards. And even before anything happened, I thought to myself that those old birds knew magic...that there was going to be magic.
“It should have been wonderful, or exciting. Instead, I was only more frightened as their severe faces looked down on me.
“My father spoke to me then, saying only, ‘Be still, boy.’
“And suddenly, those two old men seemed to melt before my eyes, their bodies shifting like water into a pair of enormous grizzled wolves.
“Their yellow eyes burned into me, then the two lifted their muzzles and howled to the moon.
“I think I screamed. Yeah...I probably did. But my father never eased his grip on me and no matter how much I kicked and screamed, he didn’t budge.
“The wind rose upon the voices of those wolves. The air crackled with power as they called up their magic. Then they turned back to me, their silver and yellow eyes skewering me into silence.
“I stopped struggling. Everything seemed to come to a stop. It felt like they were waiting for something. As if they wanted me to say or do something.
“But, what did I know? I was just a twelve year old kid stuck in the forest with his father acting like the cheese had completely slipped off his cracker.
“Oh and the two old men who turned into wolves. Yeah, there was that, too.
“The wind died down, and those old grey wolves shifted back into old grey men. They turned to my father and together they shook their heads.
“I’ll never forget what one of them said next.
“‘The blood will tell and in this one, it does not run true. The wolf of the father is not in this child’s veins.’
“It was if they had slapped my father across the face. In a night of unbelievable things, that might have been the height of it.
“My father was an enormous man, with enormous riches and power to make or break people merely by lifting an eyebrow. But those words looked like they twisted his guts through a wringer.
“We went home after that and the next day, my father didn’t speak of what happened and neither did I.
“For almost a week, nothing happened. I busied myself poking around in my father’s library and reading as much as I could about werewolves...the legends and myths, when I knew full well that the books were wrong. I’d seen them.
“Then he came to me and said that my little brother, Braze, had gotten sick. He was in the hospital.
“And, as if it was the next logical thing to happen, we were in my father’s jet. He had nothing to say. I tried to keep quiet, and from time to time, I would sneak a look at my father’s eyes. I don’t know how I’d never noticed it before but his eyes shimmered in yellow hues that came and went...like magic. A yellow exactly like the color in those old grey wolves eyes that strange night in the woods.
“I might have only been twelve years old, but I got it. I understood the gist of what that old man had said.
“The wolf of the father is not in this child’s veins.
“I didn’t want it to be true. I wanted to be like him. Strong, proud...a man who commanded the respect of absolutely every single person around him. A wolf among men.
“But, it wasn’t in me and I knew it as well as he did then.
“Later on I would find out that the orphanage was in the Causse mountains of Aveyron, France. All I knew is that people spoke a language I didn’t understand and that there were no women there. Just men wearing rough wool robes that made me think of Friar Tuck.
“My father took me from the hired limousine to the iron gates of that place and, finally, had something to say to me.
“‘Clement. Your brother, Braze, is gone. His death has ruined me as a father and I cannot raise you as you are.
“‘Here, they will look after you.’
“And that was all. Nothing else.
“Those were the last words I’d ever heard from Nashton Abraxis before one of those robed men with a shaved head came to the gate and led me away in silence.
“I tried not to, but I looked back once, only to see my father standing next to the car. Not in a last farewell as he watched me go away. No. Not him. His back was turned and said much more than his words alone.
“I had been abandoned.
“The orphanage was run by a religious order. A monastery that went back more than ten centuries and had always taken in errant boys to give them a home and an education.
“Most of those boys went on to become monks themselves, but not all. Not me.
“In those early days, I was angry...angrier than anyone has any right to be at that age and quickly became a thorn in the monastery’s side. Even if there was no wolf in me, I learned fast how to act like a beast.
“There were plenty of boys who spoke english. Some better than others. As far as I was concerned, though, I didn’t even need to know what they were saying. A simple look would set me off and I’d pound the hell out of someone or get the hell pounded out of me.
“That’s what had just happened when I saw Brother Janos for the first time.
“An old man had come limping in to the isolation hall and came straight for me. His cheeks were unshaven...I remember that. It looked like there was dried soup crusted in the corners of his lips. He seemed a hundred years old to me at the time, but that did not stop him from giving me a backhand that had me seeing stars.
“He roared like a wild man as he came after me. When he hit me, I fell off the wooden bench where I had been sitting and holding a handkerchief to my broken nose. But that crazy old man came after me making more noise all at once than I had heard since I’d come to the orphanage.