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room. The sidhe room had no such convenience, but Green, Bracken, Arturo and a
few others of the sidhe adored television, movies, and music on compact discs
with a passion that few humans I've seen could match.
"My brother's outside with Arturo Gavin wanted to see the pretty gardens in
the moonlight, but I've got a cold and my mama told me to stay in here so I
couldn't. Arturo told me to stay in this room and to not be loud and wake you
up." He thought for a moment, realized that maybe he hadn't followed this
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order to a T, and finished with, "I wasn't loud, was I?
I had to laugh. "Nope. Not loud at all. Here you pick out a DVD, and I'll go
get something to eat. You hungry?
"Do you have pie?
"Grace always has pie," I reassured, because I could smell caramel apple pie
from the counter as I spoke. In a few moments I was sitting on the couch with
another plate of dinner, sandwiched between a slowly awakening Bracken and an
excited Graeme, watching The Incredibles. Bracken hadn't seen the movie yet,
and I had to caution Graeme that he wouldn't get another helping of pie if he
didn't stop telling Brack what came next, and then Gavin came in and promptly
flopped down in front of the television, damp jacket, shoes and all. I got him
to take everything off so we could put it in the kitchen by bribing him with
apple pie, and we all Arturo included settled down for the rest of the movie.
It was sort of fun.
Kids laugh at all the good places in a movie, and remind you that you can
laugh out loud, and they make oohing and ahhing sounds and little bits of
commentary when things are exciting, and they know all about the DVD extras,
so we got to watch the extra short films that went with it, and listen to the
commentary. When everything was done, Gavin turned to me with a face so much
like his grandma Grace's it made my heart constrict and said, "So your
superpower makes rooms glow, Cory does it do anything else?" And I had to
elbow Bracken as he snickered.
"I bet it's a shield!" Graeme said excitedly. "Like Violet's in the movie can
you turn invisible too?
"No," Bracken said beside me, "But she can turn it into a weapon, like
Gazerbeam could.
"So she could carve things into the bad guys! Do they bleed?" Graeme, the more
bloodthirsty of the two, wanted to know.
"Bracken's the one who makes them bleed, I said with a sweet smile at my
due'alle.
Bracken grinned at me wickedly, and I rolled my eyes. "No, he said, "It's
like when Luke Skywalker's hand gets cut off by the light saber& it both cuts
and burns.
Both boys made "ooohhhing" sounds, their eyes wide.
"She can also throw fireballs," Arturo added, enjoying the play of truth and
story, and the boys looked at me with new respect in their eyes. "She's taken
down entire buildings.
"And built them up again!" Brack added enthusiastically. I glared at him then,
because the story of how I made that particular building was so not suitable
for children.
"Do you have a super power, Arturo?" Gavin asked.
"Super strength, I said pertly, and Arturo looked totally surprised. "He
could probably lift up this couch, with all of us on it, if he could balance
it right. And he has super speed, too.
"I can also turn into a tree, if I want," Arturo said with dignity twinkling
from his copper-lightning eyes.
"Wow! Awesome! Can you make people bleed like Bracken?" Gavin liked the tree
thing, but blood was always more exciting.
"No that's Bracken's specialty," Arturo answered back gravely, winking at us
over the boy's heads.
"How does Bracken do that?" They both wanted to know.
I smiled ghoulishly. "He can sing to the blood," I whispered. "He can hold his
hand out to the bad guys and call their heart through their bodies until it
explodes out their chests and their blood goes everywhere!
"OOOHHHHH!!!" Two sets of shining eyes turned towards Bracken, and I was
surprised to see him flush. "Really can you really do that Bracken?
"Sure!" I said blithely. "He did it to a bad guy just today.
"Did the bad guy die?" This from Gavin, who was looking concerned.
"Unfortunately no." I replied, meaning it sincerely. "But his blood was
poisoned that was pretty exciting.
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"How did you avoid the poisoned blood?" Gavin wanted to know.
"Cory's shield." Bracken laid a hand on the small of my back as he said it,
and I could tell he was enjoying himself. I'd wondered if he would like
children, but he was a natural. "We worked like a team like The Incredibles.
It's more fun that way.
"Have you ever gotten hurt?" They asked, and suddenly, the game wasn't fun
anymore.
"Yes, I said after a moment when Bracken and I met eyes. "People get hurt
when they're defending the people they love. It can be really dangerous.
"But you're okay?" And their concern was touching.
"Yeah sure. But that's because Green was here to heal me, I said.
"Who's Green?" They asked, and a wave of longing swamped over me, and I could
feel it emanating from Bracken too, and even from Arturo who was across the
room.
"Green's the leader of this hill, I said simply. Green's my lover, my
beloved, our rock, our root, our sky, I wanted to say, but I managed to choke
all that back. "He can heal people Bracken here heals most wounds on his own,
if they're not too deep, but sometimes his power works on himself, and then he
needs Green to stop the bleeding. If I'm hurt, I always need Green's help" I
looked at Arturo for approval, and when he nodded, I rolled up my right pant
leg. "See here? This burn would have crippled me, if Green hadn't helped." I
pulled my shirt down from my shoulder, which looked like a grenade had
exploded through it. "This would have killed me. I can only be a superhero if
I've got superheroes with me. You guys you don't have superheroes with you, so
you need to keep yourselves safe, okay?
Two sober pairs of eyes regarded me brightly, and I mustered up a smile.
"Hey you guys decide do you want to watch another movie, or do you want to
play a game I m pretty sure the sprites can pull up Monopoly or something. You
hash it out, okay? I'm going to go get my knitting.
I was on my way back from my room, wondering why kids were so much easier to
deal with than full-grown humans, when the phone rang. It was Nicky.
"Hey!" I said happily, "How's the trip?
"Great, he said. "Uhm& really great.
Something in his tone made the back of my neck ripple. "How are you all
getting along?
"Great. Mmm& I mean, really really great!
"Okay, Nicky," I snapped, "Spill it. What's going on? And if you tell me
everything's great again, I'll reach through the telephone line and strangle
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