The Year of the Salamander - 26. Chapter 26

“Okay, okay,” Blair was growing more and more impatient. “I get it; watch out for someone who was born on Winter Equinox. If that’s all, I am going home!”

“Blair...”

“Ugh, what?!” he whirled around and impatiently stared at the tall, dark-haired man.

“Would you like to know the date of the Equinox?” the man asked patiently.

“January-something,” Blair shrugged. “Felix, I gotta...”

“It’s on February fourteenth,” Felix said, and Blair became mute. “What?” Felix frowned when he saw Blair’s expression.

“February fourteenth?” Blair said numbly.

“Yes,” Felix nodded, his eyes slightly narrowed by now. “The person will be turning...”

“Don’t say twenty-three,” Blair thought feverishly. “Don’t say twenty-three... Don’t say twenty-three... Don’t say...”

“...twenty-three,” Felix finished, and for a few seconds, Blair could hear nothing but the sound of his own heartbeat. “Blair...” Felix called carefully after seeing the Fire Guardian’s face turn white. “Blair...! What is it?” he asked after Blair looked at him blindly.

“Sam will be turning twenty-three on February fourteenth,” he said as numbly as before.

For several minutes, there was nothing but stunned silence.

“Sam...” Felix said finally. “Oh, God, Blair, I am sorry...”

“Sorry?” Blair frowned. “For what?”

Felix looked at him as if the Fire Guardian just asked the dumbest question in the world.

“You do realize that since we have this information, we have to do everything we can to prevent this from happening, right?” he asked slowly.

“I will do everything I can,” Blair nodded. “Goddammit, I will tie him down if I have to!”

“Blair...” Felix closed his eyes for a few seconds. “It might be too far gone by now... We might not have a choice...”

Blair blinked rapidly and stared at him for almost a minute. Then he shifted his gaze to a brown-haired man who was just staring out of the window, saying nothing.

“Hold on,” Blair said slowly. “Hold on... If you are saying what I think you are saying...” He looked at Felix again. “And I think it’s the case,” he nodded. “Then listen to me very carefully because I am not going to repeat myself... Try touching Sam, and I will kill you. I don’t care if Claudia loses another Guardian; I don’t care if Reagan ends up being the ruler of the entire world; I don’t give a flying...”

“If Winter Equinox is not taken care of, Reagan is not the one who will end up being the ruler of the entire world!” Felix interrupted him in a quiet but firm voice. “In fact, there will be...”

“I don’t care!” Blair said louder than before. “I don’t give a damn, do you understand me?”

“Blair...” Now Felix’s voice sounded darker and more urgent. “You are letting your emotions and feelings to interfere with your purpose! The greater good...”

“The greater good can fuck itself,” Blair interrupted him again. “Felix, try touching Sam, and all the water in the universe is not going to help you!”

“Blair...”

“Don’t ‘Blair’ me!” He felt an insanely massive heat wave rise deep inside him, and he tried pushing it away. “I will burn to ashes anyone who as much as goes near him, understood?!” His fingertips started to itch like crazy, and he squeezed his hands into tight fists, trying to get better control of himself.

“Blair, listen to me...”

“No, Felix, you listen to me... If I even suspect that something isn’t right, I...”

“Enough!” the brown-haired man slammed both of his hands into the windowsill, and the earth shook. “Enough...” he repeated in a softer voice and turned away from the window. “Blair, control yourself! I don’t have a slightest desire to knock you out again... Felix, shut up!” he said when he saw the taller man trying to say something. “Nobody is going to do anything to Sam... Anything,” he repeated heavily without taking his eyes off Felix. “He just happened to be born on this goddamn date; it’s not his fault, he didn’t ask for it. We are not going to do anything but try and protect him, understood?”

“Daniel, you are making a mistake,” Felix said quietly.

“Maybe so,” Daniel nodded. “But I am not changing my mind. Also, we will have to make sure that nobody from Reagan’s side finds out about this. The minute she finds out, Sam doesn’t stand a chance, even with the three of us.”

Blair immediately shot a very dark look towards Felix.

“Do not insult me!” the taller man said sharply. “I would never do something like this, and you know it!”

Yes, Blair knew that.

“Sorry,” he muttered, and was relieved when the mad itching in his fingertips reduced to almost nothing.

Felix gave him a stiff nod without saying anything.

“Don’t tell Claudia either,” Daniel looked at both men steadily. “If she figures it out on her own, then we will deal with it... If not...” He shrugged. “Do not tell her!” he said slowly.

“Not a problem...” Blair muttered, and Felix just gave another stiff nod.

“Blair...” Daniel tapped a quick, mindless rhythm on the windowsill with his fingers. “Your week ends on February twentieth... I will cover the early morning of the thirteenth up to the midnight of the fourteenth. I need you to make sure you are watching him, understood?”

“Yes,” Blair nodded heavily. “What is going to happen?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel answered honestly and looked at Felix. “Do you?”

“No,” Felix sighed and shook his head. “I have no idea... All I know is that there is some sort of a ritual that takes part at least three weeks before the Equinox... At least,” he repeated. “Maybe more than three weeks... I have no idea what the ritual is, and I have no idea what is going to happen...” He shrugged. “This subject is not easily researched, you know...”

“Right...” Blair muttered.

“Has anything strange happened lately?” Felix asked tightly. “Anything out of the ordinary?”

Blair thought about it for a second.

“No,” he said finally. “It might not even be him for all we know. He is not the only one who will be turning twenty-three on that particular date, is he?”

“He is the only one we know about,” Felix said evenly. “There is a chance that it is not him, but that chance is rather slim.”

“How many gods are there?” Blair narrowed his eyes slightly. “The old gods, I mean...”

“Seven,” Felix sighed. “Moloch, Turrin, Wedgah, Thurmei, Frilkeh, Satrienne, and Sunmoah.”

“How do you know all of their names?” Blair blinked. “They are bizarre, to say the least...”

Felix shrugged.

“I like history,” he said. “Read a lot about different things, the old gods included.”

Blair shoved his hands into his pockets. “I see,” he muttered, and then shook his head. “Anyway, if I am no longer needed here, I am going home.”

“Do you want me to keep an eye on him while you are gone next week?” Daniel asked.

“No,” Blair answered somewhat shortly. “He doesn’t need to be babysat.”

“This is not babysitting,” Daniel’s voice was as calm as before. “This is a precaution.”

“No,” Blair said again. “He’ll be fine...” He thought of Desmond and nodded. “Yeah, he will be fine.” When you have someone like Specter as a roommate and a friend, you should be pretty safe, he reasoned.

“All right,” Daniel agreed with a small shrug, and Blair left without saying anything else.

****

Maxwell Todd turned out to be a guy in his late twenties with a surprisingly low amount of tattoos. Desmond expected to see someone who would be covered in ink from head to toe. Instead, Maxwell looked absolutely normal, with only two visible tattoos – a thin, black-and-white bracelet on his left wrist and a medium size letter M on his right bicep.

“So, how is Richie?” he asked when he was studying Desmond’s doodle on the piece of paper that Sam handed to him.

“He is all right,” Desmond nodded.

“Which subject are you teaching again?” Maxwell put the paper aside and got up.

“Poisons and hand-to-hand combat,” Desmond said, trying to figure out what it was that he felt right now. All of a sudden, he was itching with the desire to get a tattoo.

“Oh,” Maxwell threw him a quick glance. “So you are the ‘Lie-Detector,’ huh?”

Desmond smiled at that.

“I am,” he agreed, watching Maxwell clean Sam’s left shoulder blade with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol.

“How do you do that?” The artist didn’t look up from Sam’s shoulder but his voice sounded genuinely curious.

“I don’t know,” Desmond shrugged. “Just happens. I can sense it, you know?”

“Handy,” Maxwell muttered, carefully drawing the design on Sam’s skin with a very thin brush.

That brush made Desmond frown thoughtfully. There was something about the paintbrush, he thought. Something about the brush, paint, and something else...

“Ow!” Sam said, and Desmond blinked. Whatever that feeling of vague recollection was, it disappeared.

“Oh, suck it up,” he grinned, watching Sam bite his lower lip with a small grimace. “Come on, Sam! Zabrowski has ten of those and they are bigger than the one you are getting... The ones I could see that is,” he nodded. “Zabrowski can’t possibly be tougher than you!”

“Ow!” Sam said again with a wince.

Desmond watched Maxwell work, and by the time the artist was done, he made up his mind.

“I want the same one,” he said. “On my right shoulder.”

Sam looked at him with wide eyes.

“Seriously?” he said. “I mean... Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Desmond nodded. “I feel like I have to have it. I guess, this is contagious...” he sighed, and Maxwell nodded.

“It is,” he agreed solemnly. “Once you start, it’s hard to stop...”

“Yeah, well...” Desmond muttered, pulling off his shirt. “Believe me, I am only getting this one.”

...When everything was finished, Desmond felt a wave of enormous satisfaction, as if he just completed something very important.