“Oh,” Alex said as he threw himself onto the sofa of what Xaxac was considering ‘his’ sitting room, “Guess you wouldn’t supposed to know we was here to watch you. Don’t tell him I told you.”

“It just seems real soon,” Xaxac said as he fell onto the sofa next to him. “I ain’t ready… It ain’t like… I don’t think y’all are listenin to me when I say I can’t control it.”

“I don’t think you’re listenin to folks who say they ain’t scared of a jackrabbit,” Alex said as he poured them both a glass of whiskey, picked up the cigarette case he had left sitting on the coffee table, pulled one out for himself and then handed the case to Xaxac.

Xac stared at it before he snapped it open, took one for himself, and leaned into the flame of the match Alex had struck.

“Aggie says other people are coming and I ain’t allowed to talk to the girls,” he said as he exhaled.

“Yeah, none of us are,” Alex agreed, “It’s a cockfight in here.”

Xac wanted to laugh at that, knew it had been intended as a joke, but he couldn’t do what Alex had asked of him. He couldn’t stop thinking, all the time, constantly, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

“I’ve been thinkin too much,” he said.

“Yeah, you have,” Alex said.

“How do you… keep from it?” Xac asked.

“You gotta,” Alex handed him the glass of whiskey, “Well, this helps. But somethin else is… you’re gonna think, you just gotta get to where you think about the right kind of things. You can’t dwell on the stuff that’s gonna make you… you gotta think light, I guess. Frills, appearance, drugs, hair, parties, they’ll tell you what to think about.”

Xaxac took another drag of his cigarette and stared into his glass.

“That works?” he asked.

Something flashed across Alex’s face that he tried to hide in a cloud of smoke, and when he spoke Xaxac knew he was lying to him.

“Yeah, that works. You just… gotta get good at it. You’ll learn.”

Xaxac took another long drag from his cigarette, exhaled and looked up at the cloud.

After a beat, he asked, “How many ceiling tiles you got in the bedroom at your house?”

“Sixty,” Alex said, and the word hung thickly in the air around them. “They got these little flowers on um. And they lie. Don’t listen to um.”

“Are all the houses the same?” Xaxac asked.

“No, darlin, your’n’s much nicer,” Alex said as he turned and lay back against the arm rest, “Bigger, got a coupla, just nicer. You lucked out.”

“The flowers lied to me too,” Xaxac said.

“I know, don’t trust um,” Alex said.

The door opened and Lorsan slid inside as if he didn’t want anyone to know he was going to be in there. He closed the door quietly, then turned to face Xac and Alex. Xaxac stared at him in confusion.

“Hey,” Lorsan said after a beat, “Xaxac.” After another beat he added, “Hey uhh… Xander?”

“Alex,” Alex corrected.

“Right,” Lorsan said, strode up to them and picked up the cigarette case that Xaxac had set down. He turned it front to back looking at both sides, then sat it down and walked into the bedroom.

“Mister Agalon,” Alex asked, “What are you doing?”

“Mind your business,” Lorsan said, but Alex narrowed his eyes and pushed himself to his feet.

“Mister Agalon,” he said again, “I don’t think my master wants you in his bedroom.”

“Uh-huh,” Lorsan said absentmindedly as Alex moved to the doorway. Xac peered over the back of the couch to watch them and saw Lorsan shove his way past him and back into the sitting room holding a book.

“You can’t just take stuff,” Alex told him, “You gotta ask Ky!”

“Fine,” Lorry huffed and threw the book at him, “Here, maybe it’s got pictures.”

Alex caught it and glared at him. He seemed unfamiliar with the type of thing he was seeing, but Xaxac had seen it before. He knew a distraction when he saw one.

“Hey Lorry, what’d you really take?” Xac asked as he sipped his whiskey.

“I gotta go,” Lorsan said, but Xaxac was at the door in the time it took him to turn towards it, and Lorsan stumbled back so quickly it nearly knocked him off his feet.

“Holy shit,” he said and held out his hands, “how the hell…”

“Give it back,” Xaxac demanded.

“Hey, you know what?” Lorry snarled, “Couple things, one, you’re drunk. Two, I didn’t take nothin. And three, you can’t be talkin to me like that. Get outta my way.”

“I might be drunk,” Xaxac admitted, because the world was beginning to float a little, “But you been real weird since I shifted and you ain’t your daddy. You ain’t gonna do nothin to me. Now you give back whatever you done went in there and took off Alex’s master or I’m gonna tell your daddy.”

“Don’t threaten me, Xac,” Lorsan laughed, but there was no mirth in it. He was anxious, and Alex still stood behind the couch, darting his eyes between the two of them and hating the thing he saw before him. He had never seen Xaxac angry before, did not know about all the screaming, all the pain Lorsan had caused, did not know that Lorsan had tried to run away to tell people about Xaxac attacking an elf, did not know that he had hidden and locked himself away. All Alex saw was Xaxac acting in the most foolish, dangerous way he possibly could,and it put the fear of god in him.

“Have you lost your goddamn mind?” he asked Xac, “Get out the way! Don’t talk to him like that. Mister Agalon, I am so sorry, he’s drunk and he was already kinda dumb.”

“I am drunk and stupid,” Xaxac agreed, “But I can sober up and learn something. This guy’s been an asshole to me, and to Aggie! He don’t like me!”

“Then why are you goin out of your way to piss him off?” Alex moved as if he was going to come between them then thought better of it.

“But he ain’t got no reason not to like me,” Xaxac said, and the tears that welled up in his eyes confused him, “I ain’t never done nothin to him! He just don’t like me on account of I’m a shifter, and I… I can’t… I can’t shift in front a people I can’t… I can’t have everybody hate me! I’m gonna hurt somebody! Just give um back the crystal, I know that’s what you took! That’s what you took last time, and if your dumb ass hadn’t’a wore um in front of him you coulda kept um! Stop actin up all the time! Stop tryin to make it so much harder on everybody! Life is hard enough already!”

“I bet it is,” Lorsan agreed. His voice had softened and his body deflated. “You… it hurts me to look at you. I can’t stand to look at you. You’re always cryin.”

“There’s somethin wrong with me!” Xaxac said.

“Xac, just move,” Alex stepped forward, “just get out of his way.”

“Don’t touch him,” Lorry warned, “Last time somebody touched him he bit um.”

“I was shifted,” Xaxac wailed.

“Hush,” Lorry said, “Daddy’s on a scry. You… you really don’t remember none of it?”

Xac shook his head.

“I don’t hate you, Xac,” Lorry said with great sincerity, “I want… I want better for you. You gotta know daddy don’t… can’t… I don’t know what you think he thinks about you, but he’s broke you. Broke you like a workhorse, and he’s gonna try to break you in that shifted form so you’ll be nice and sweet and docile, let people pet you and shit so he can charge um to do it. And it ain’t gonna work. You can’t break a shifter. Somebody’s gonna get killed by the end a’ this an they’re gonna put you down for it. You don’t need to be here.”

“I ain’t never hurt nobody,” Xaxac argued.

“Yeah, on account of you ain’t never been around nobody,” Lorsan explained, not unkindly, “Daddy wants to put you in front of a crowd. And he ain’t got no business doin that.”

“I don’t… I…”

“I gotta find a way to get you outta here,” Lorsan said, “And I ain’t got much time. I’m tryin to help you.” He glared at Alex before he turned back to Xac and spoke in a soft, quiet voice, “I’m gonna touch you, alright?”

Xac nodded, and when Lorsan wrapped his arms around him, he buried his face in his shoulder.

“Don’t tell um I was here,” Lorsan said, “I’m gonna scry some folks, see if there ain’t… there’s gotta be something…”

“You did take a crystal,” Xaxac said to his shoulder.

“Don’t tell nobody,” Lorsan pleaded.

“Lorry?” Xac asked.

“Yeah?”

“When… when your daddy gives you your stuff back, for school? Can I…”

“Can you what?” Lorsan asked.

“Nothin,” Xac said.

“Ok,” Lorry sighed, “I gotta get outta here.”

He released Xac and scooted past him to crack the door open and disappear into the hallway.

“The hell just happened?” Alex asked.