Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father Chapter Forty One (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta... Have fun Wildwalding! InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are sparkley goodness for archiving/hosting. ProPhile: *GLOKE * Morgan: *GLOMP * Readers/Reviewers: And hopefully, this marks the start of sense, lol.. The ducks are hiding so I think it might be a good thing.


Todd was debating between screaming, crying or beating the hell out of something. He settled for muttering a stream of profanities under his breath as he paced the lakeside, snapping reeds as he walked, sending small bugs scurrying for their lives. He was missing the Boardinghouse, he thought in a particularly petulant and dark turn. "At least people stayed put there, yo..." He snapped particularly violently at one reed and was surprised to hear an answering "OW!"
Bobby's head appeared over a thick stand of reeds, his face set in angry lines. "Watch what you're doing, Todd!"
Todd blinked rapidly. "Dude, what the fuck?" He peered into the reeds. "Um, you alone in there, right?"
Bobby rolled his eyes, getting to his feet. "Yes, I'm alone in here! That's why I came out here, to be a-fucking-lone!" His eyes were red and swollen, his lips pressed tightly together as if to keep a torrent of words at bay. He bit out, "Go the fuck away, okay?"
Todd nodded. "Right on." He turned away and began his trek back around the lake in the opposite direction, his head lowered and hands fisted at his side, silently fuming.
"Todd!" Bobby cringed at the break in his voice. He found himself starting forward, his knees almost not wanting to work as he closed the distance between him and Todd. "Don't go, okay?"
Todd blinked. "Um...oooookay..." He shrugged uncomfortably and tried not to look directly at Bobby. "Any...er...reason?"
Bobby sighed roughly. "Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I want YOU," he snapped. "Besides...St John, remember?" He shook his head at Todd's sheepish look. "I just...don't want to sit out here alone, okay?"
"Fair 'nough," he returned, easing his posture a little. "Um...yeah." He looked around and shrugged again. "Fucked up about Remy, ain't it?"
"Do you think...I mean..." Bobby sighed. "It's weird. He was like a brother to me. He was one of the first people to really accept me and St John and he was just..." he closed his eyes.
"Yeah," Todd sighed. "I know. He was Brotherhood, ya know? He gave it up..." He sighed again and glanced back towards the mansion. "Want to go inside? It's gonna rain."
Bobby nodded and started walking, expecting Todd to keep up with him. "I heard Jubilee and Jean talking earlier... They think the new kids are up to something."
"Huh?" He tried to think of all the possible things Annie, Aggie and Ernie could be up to and could think of nothing that would warrant Bobby mentioning it just now.
"I don't know what it is but..." He paused and licked his lips, looking more than a little scared. "I don't know why I'm telling you this but okay...I haven't even told St John yet..." His voice lowered conspiratorially as he continued, "I heard something really weird last night."
"Um...oh?" Todd felt his brows creep up as Bobby leaned closer, his eyes wide. "Like...what?"
"Like..." Bobby ran his fingers through his already messy hair and sighed, finishing in a rush, "I heard that Poena chick chanting in Latin and I *swear * someone was answering her...and it wasn't Amara."
"Well...that ain't right." Todd frowned and shifted his weight. "Maybe it was...um..." He stalled. No one else spoke Latin that he knew of. "Maybe Lance was getting Latin lessons?"
Bobby sniffled, raising a brow. "Do you honestly believe that?"
Todd sighed. "Nah. Well...did you tell the Professor?" He could not believe he was asking that. _I sound like one of 'em now... I guess I'm here to stay aren't I? _ "So...what do you want to do about it?"
"I want..." Bobby paused and frowned. "I want a lot of things but right now, until we know what's going on, I want to go look through Poena's stuff."
Todd felt a smirk flutter weakly across his features. "You sound like Brotherhood, yo."
Bobby rolled his eyes slightly. "When in doubt, snoop."
They trudged towards the mansion again, this time in silence broken only by Bobby's occasional sniffles. "You gonna be okay?" Todd finally asked as they reached the back door off the sun porch.
Bobby paused and looked up at the clouded sky, his face blank. "No...not really."

Amara's room smelled heavily of incense, dark and sweet to the point of being cloying. The curtains were drawn and safety pinned together to block out any sunlight, the bed stripped bare and the sheets laid out on the floor. Todd sniffed and frowned at the faint metallic tang, a sour smell with an organic tone to it. It took him a moment but realization hit him like a punch to the solar plexus. "Blood," he said flatly. "Turn on the light, yo."
Bobby's nose wrinkled at the smell but he picked his way across the room to the lamp on the bedside table after a few flicks of the wall switch produced no effect. The room was bathed in a yellow gold glow from the single bulb, casting it an a strangely late evening sort of light. The statuettes that had usually lined the room were gone, leaving surfaces bare except the window seat where the statue of Amara's patroness stood. Before it was a copper bowl and blade, shimmering darkly. "What is that stench?" Bobby breathed. "God, it's awful!"
Todd slowly picked his way across the floor, knowing what he was going to see. In the bowl at the statuette's feet was a thick, clotting pool of blood, a few flecks of flesh in the gore. He felt his gorge rise and turned away quickly. "Dude, go get Logan!"
"What is it?"
"Just go!"