The Vaticinator

16. Tussling Words And Aiming Birds

 “Yeah, man,” I hear Neal say, “it’s kickass, knowing I need a bodyguard to traverse through a corridor.” He chuckles.

“Ahan,” Aakir snorts, “not only that but you have a full time bodyguard assigned to you for your astral form.”

“Sounds like one of those cheap movies.” Rahul adds, snickering.

The three of them chuckle sardonically and continue to pass offhanded comments about how ‘hilarious’ our serious situation is in the parallel world. My partner is laughing and contributing his own witty comments, boasting in jest how important he is to have everybody gushing at him at all times. Aakir and Rahul are laughing over Neal’s wittily humorous comments but I am aware of how much sarcastic Neal is actually being with his words. He was not happy last night as he had sulkily allowed me to accompany him to his aunt’s room. With an exchange of bitter words, I had assumed we are done with our bitchiness for the day. But come morning, and my partner has only monosyllable replies to my every question.

He doesn’t even think of cutting me slack, considering he slept in my bed yesterday while I slept on the floor. But then I realize that there is nothing to cut slack over. I have done nothing wrong. I am being cautious with Neal. If he doesn’t like it, well, too bad, because he’ll just have to suck up to it. He needs to understand that he is just a plain pure human at the end of the day while everyone around him is capable of snapping his neck within seconds. Despite knowing the vulnerability he disposes, he still wishes to have free reign over his actions, to have free liberty as to where he can hang about. Life gets tougher when you have a stubborn, arrogant bullhead for a partner.

I am sitting next to mother in the SUV that arrived for us in the morning. She is anxious, yet giddy to be back in her home city. I see the driver taking much secluded routes towards the head council office where we are headed. The driver is a human but has been sent by the members of the head council. Father had informed us of it by a call and on his instructions, we are now settled in for an hour long ride to the colony where the head council is.

Jennifer, who is officially in a stare war with me whenever we happen to meet eyes, is sitting next to Rufina aunt. Her expressions last night when Neal and I had gone to her room to collect Neal’s luggage were enough to convey the understanding. Understanding, that she accepts that Neal trusts me more than her. But that doesn’t mean she is happy about it. She has been giving me the glares since morning. My returning stares are not placid ones. I have clearly expressed that if she takes one more negative step, the elders of my house will know of her infidelity. Then she can handle the situation on her own.

I am mute through the journey. Jennifer and Silvia mirror my stance. While the rest are quite casual in their demeanor, as if we are just going out for an ice cream. The sequestered roads are soon gone and our car swerves towards the main roads of the city. The whole route, though secluded, is vastly flowing through the heart of the city. Once in a while I will catch site of Yenisei River, also crossing the famous river port of Krasnoyarsk at one point. The stretch is not overtly crowded, but more than once I end up sensing therian auras, some walking, some driving. It makes me wonder if they can sense the over powering aura of Neal that has practically drowned the aura of most of us sitting in the car. The thought has me slightly paranoid.

We leave the crowded city roads and enter one of the residential areas. On continuing along the now almost abandoned road, we reach a site that I have not been at all anticipating. Gone are the big buildings of the city and the noisiness of the motor vehicles. This part of the city is much greener, almost looking like a country side. A lone road with greenery around gives way to what I can see as rows and rows of houses in the distance. But these are not the regular houses that I have been witnessing in the city. These are much different with good amounts of greenness around them. There is a metallic automated gate prior to our journey towards those houses. The driver stops, takes out a thin card from his breast pocket and swipes it in the card holder machine next to the gates. The gates come to life, clanging loudly as they slide open for us to pass through.