Inhuman Heritage by Sonnet O'Dell Page B

lid down on the toilet again and sat on it. Simian brought me a cup of tea and sat next to me on the edge of the bathtub. I took it from him sipping the warm liquid tentatively. I felt altogether-for lack of a better or more accurate term-more human after that.
    “Thanks,” I said out of courtesy. I wasn’t sure I really meant it. He’d thrown me fully dressed into a cold shower after all. I wrapped my hands tightly around the warm mug drawing the heat into my skin. He put his hand on my shoulder and refused to let me shrug it off.
    “Cassandra, please talk to me. I like to think that we’re family or as close as we can be to one. I can see you need to talk and I’ll listen.” I stared at the tea, the warm golden brown color of it as if answers would bob to the surface and I could drink them down. My stomach twisted and the pain of not having eaten more than snack food for the last few hours made my eyes prickle with tears. I took a deep breath. I’d made a lot of mistakes in a short amount of time and I’d have to back pedal to fix them all. Simian rubbed soothing circles on my back and I burst into tears. His sympathy was something I had been looking for but convinced myself I wasn’t going to get. As he let me cry against him I found myself wishing it had been Aram there, he who had recognized how much pain I was really in and stepped in. I wanted the arms around me to belong to the man I loved and some part of me had to admit that I did in fact love Aram or I had started to. It took a little while to get the tears under control enough to speak.
    “How do you deal with not being human anymore?”
    “Cassandra, I’m still as human as I’ve ever been.” He started to contradict me and then something on his face showed that a thought was clicking into to place. “Oh.”
    I nodded my head slowly.
    “Start at the beginning.”
    I sniffed drawing in my breath and started with what I had overheard at Virginia’s, the call and visit to the doctor. I told him about Magnus, about Nancy and about Aram, then my stunning decent into alcohol and the huge mistake of letting Wraith cast his spell over me. The relief I felt sharing the burden made my shoulders feel lighter, however it did nothing to fix the sick feeling in my stomach. Simian listened to me without saying a single word. We ended up sitting against the bath tub, side by side with his arm around my shoulders as I let every emotion I’d stuffed down for the last couple of days boil over. Then we were silent for a while and the first thing Simian said to me made me laugh.
    “Pretty girl like you shouldn’t date a deader. If you need a man I know some very good ones right here. Vampires are dangerous.”
    “Whereas comparatively werewolves are just big fluffy puppy dogs who’ll only lick your face and fetch your slippers.” He smirked.
    A knock came on the door and Sophie peered around the frame. I smiled at her weakly and she came in carrying my clothes. I held out my arms taking them from her.
    “Nice and dry,” she said and leaned over patting me on the head softly. I turned to look at Simian who pulled his wife down to him and gave her a kiss, smacking her on the butt as she left. I rolled my eyes.
    “I need to get dressed if we’re still going to do this meeting,” I said finding my feet and steadying myself against the sink. Simian stood and gave a sharp nod.
    “Are you going to be able to do this?”
    “Yeah, I can deal with my own problems better by focusing on someone else’s and you were right when you said I could use the pay check.” He walked to the door stopping his hand on the handle.
    “After this it might be beneficial for you to confront Ms.. Too-good with your questions.”
    “I know,” I said smiling at his reflection in the mirror above the sink. “But one of the twelve steps at a time, okay Simian.” He smirked again and closed the door behind him.
    I dressed quickly and Sophie let me borrow some of her makeup which was