To Adam With Love--A Gray Zone Novel

Chapter Nine

Ean didn't really want to be there, but Jerry was the only person he knew who could help him. He touched his pocket, and the stiffness of the cream-colored card he'd bought at the street market pressed against his fingers. The edges were gold-colored, with curlicues, small humming birds, and flowers. It made the piece of cardboard almost pretty enough to be a present on its own. But it was blank, and Ean really wanted to put words on the inside because Human things like that were important to Adam.

He raised his hand to knock. Dropped it. Then raised it again.

Before he could knock on the door, it opened, and the chain at the top snapped taut.

Ean had only tried to tell Jerry once how the chains, the locks, and the dead bolts were unnecessary. No Kin in his right mind would challenge Batu.

But maybe it wasn't Kin Jerry was worried about.

Whatever. Ean wasn't about to point it out again. It just wasn't worth having to dodge the furniture Jerry would throw.

"What do you want?" Jerry's golden eyes glared at Ean from under a heavy, scaled brow.

Ean swallowed. "I need a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"I need your help with something."

"What?"

Ean fished out the card he had crammed in his pocket and smoothed out the small creases, trying to roll up the corners. "I need you to help me write something on this."

Jerry growled and slammed the door.

Ean knocked. "Please, Jerry, I want to give Adam something for his birthday, but I don't know how to write. I try, but I can't make my Es...." Whatever else Ean was about to say trickled off when Jerry opened the door back up. This time all the way.

As in wide enough for him to go inside.

Ean had never been in the Lesser-Bred's apartment. He only came over here to use the phone, and then Jerry would make him stand out in the hall while he glared at him through the crack in the door.

"Well, are you going to stand there all fucking day or what?"

Ean stepped inside. Except for the glow of some sort of TV on the desk near the wall it was dark. Only it wasn't a TV. It was a computer, like the ones Ean had seen in movies—the same kind they used in the cafés at the Fringe. Ean didn't know much about them, but he'd never really wanted to.

There were other things, too, things Ean didn't recognize, and a lot of wires.

Jerry limped over and flipped off the screen, leaving only the sickly light from a small lamp on the table near a chair. The Lesser-Bred pulled on his housecoat with his good arm. His other one was tucked inside. According to Batu, it didn't look Human anymore. Ean had never seen it, but not much about Jerry looked Human. His head was bald, oddly shaped, and there were bright splashes of iridescent scales on his cheeks. But unlike a Stain, which was below the skin, these lay on top, and sometimes they even fluttered up and down.

The sound they made reminded Ean of dead leaves.

"Don't stare. It's rude."

Ean looked at the floor. "Sorry."

"Now what do you want?"

Ean held out the card, but the Lesser-Bred didn't take it.