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On their way to the next site Sammy and Alicia chat.

Sammy propels herself and Alicia across Oak Park and River Forest toward the other site of destruction.  She stays close to the other girl, ready to reach out and grab her if necessary, but giving her the rush of simulated independent flight.  As usual, she's smiling hugely at the thrill the other person seems to get from the experience.

Alicia's face is split with a grin. Her goggles are on, this time not to hide her face but to protect from the wind.

She experiments with moving her body to see if she can affect her position, and proceeds to "swim" the air currents like an otter.

The exhilaration of movement is plain on her face.

A bit before arriving at their destination, Alicia signals to Sammy that she wants to land, pointing to an alley below them.

Sammy complies.  "Wassup?" she asks once they're on the ground.  She's guardedly looking for signs of airsickness.

The grin seems to be permanently attached to Alicia's face. She pulls the goggles off and shakes her head.

"Woo, chica! That was awesome! Almost as good as sex!"

As soon as the words escape her lips, she freezes. her whole demeanor changes, and a very serious Alicia looks out of those cat-like eyes.

"Sammy. I wanted to catch you away from the others to... tell you a couple of things."

She hesitates, unsure, then plunges on. "Be careful about that Dee-Lahn guy." Her voice mocks the unusual pronunciation that Uther had used.

"He wants you."

Sammy's face grows sober and her eyes are intently focused on Alicia.  "What exactly do you mean by wants?"

Alicia struggles to explain.

"He wants to have you, to put his mark on you."

She looks around as if trying to search for an answer in the air. "I think. I... don't know. He... reminds me of someone."

There is genuine distress in her voice. She shakes her head as if to focus her thoughts. "Look, I'm just sayin'. Be careful with him, 'mana. I... don't want you to get hurt."

The last is said quietly, as if the admission concerns her more than the situation itself.

Unfortunately (or not) this means something different to Sammy than it might to Alicia.  "You think he wants to own me?  Put bands on me?"  She shakes her head abruptly, unwilling to accept that idea.  "He just asked me to dance.  That's all.  He never hurt Sylvia."

Alicia frowns. "You said that before. Bands. What does that mean?"

Sammy sits down on a discarded wooden crate. 

"I'm not just paranormal.  I'm, I'm not entirely human.  I'm part djinni.  You know, rub the lamp, make a wish, yes Master, your wish is my command?  A while ago, a couple of things happened to me, and my power grew a lot stronger -- I became more djinn than human, and almost entirely lost my humanity."  She tugs open her clothing to reveal a tattoo just below her collarbone.  "Colin has one that pairs to this -- he anchored me, grounded me, kept me here, I dunno, held onto my humanity for me."  She covers the tattoo again.  "Its cold out here! Anyhow, in the bad old days, magicians would put these things called djinn bands onto djinni -- something like gold or bronze bracelets -- it allowed the magicians to channel power and do things through the djinni, making the magicians more powerful and putting the djinni under the magician's control.  In the wrong hands, that could be very bad.  Supposedly there aren't many bands left in the world, but I still worry.  Less human, more djinn makes me more susceptible."

Alicia leans against the brownstone wall and slides down to a sitting position as she listens to Sammy.

"Wow," is all she can say when Sammy finishes.

She stares off into nothing for a few seconds, digesting what she's heard. Finally, she licks her lips nervously and looks at Sammy, her eyes golden auras around widened dark pupils.

"It didn't matter if the doctors said I was human, everybody teated me like a freak. Well, except my mom. If they didn't just out and out trash on me, they'd walk around like any second I was going to go psycho on them.

"Then, I met this boy. Marco, he didn't treat me that way. He talked to me, and smiled when he looked at me, and..." She stops, her voice trembling as she swallows. She hugs herself, clutching at the hoodie she's wearing.

"He ran a gang in our neighborhood. He was smart, smarter that all those other chingos. I ran with them, did everything Marco asked me to. Everything.

"Then one night..." She takes a ragged breath. "I found out that he'd just been using me, that all I was to him was an 'asset,' something that he could use to get what he wanted and throw away once he was done."

She pauses, then speaks again, her voice now low and pregnant with another emotion, one more primal and dangerous. "You don't need no bands to chain you up. If that puto Dee-Lahn tries that with you, I'll rip his heart out and eat it in front of him." The threat does not sound at all figurative.

In silence, Sammy walks over next to Alicia, slides down the same wall, and puts an arm around her shoulder.  "I'm so sorry.  You need to have a long talk with my mom," she says.  "A long, long talk."

Sammy stares off into the distance.  "I can't go into too many details without breaking her confidence, but I got my djinn blood from somewhere, you know?  When she was young, she was different, she was angry, she made some mistakes and she got mixed up with the wrong people. They did some bad, bad things... and she was used, just like you.  And eventually she got out, got away, but paid a pretty heavy price.  I'm going to invite you to dinner, and you can talk to her or not; if you decide you're not ready, at least she's a good cook and you'll walk away well fed.  If you decide to talk another time, my folks are the kind of parents that like their kids' friends to come by -- all you have to do is knock, and the door will be opened to you.  Any time."

She sighs.  "I'll be careful of Dylan too.  I don't think he's like your Marco, but I'll be careful just in case.  Its not like I don't have enough boy trouble as it is.  I don't need to add more by being stupid."

Alicia looks at her sideways, a mixture of relief and doubt swimming in her eyes.

"Really? I... wasn't sure how you'd react. I'd just met you guys and I was afraid that if you knew what I'd been..."

Sammy hugs her a little tighter.  "Who am I to judge?  My mom has lived where you are.  I don't think anybody else is going to judge you too harshly either, but the telling is up to you.  Otherwise its a closed secret."

Alicia blinks, her eyes bright.

Turning, she hugs Sammy back tight, holding her like a half-drowned man would hold a life-saver.

Her voice muffled, she says, "Thanks."

Sammy lets Alicia sit there, hugging and being hugged as long as she needs to.

It occurs to her as she sits there that she owes more sincere forgiveness to a couple of people, but she doesn't discuss this out loud.

Still hugging Sammy, Alicia says in a more conversational tone, "Donny and Sylivia had sex."

Sammy tenses up.  "Ew.  I mean, I didn't want to know... I mean, I guessed they might be, but I didn't know... eww."  She unwillingly contemplates this for a moment, then says "Sensitive nose?  Can you tell when somebody, well, likes somebody else?"

Alicia lifts her head up to look at Sammy and shrugs, sincere concern in her voice. "I can tell if someone is aroused or interested; their smell changes. That's why I thought you should know.

"Sylvia's put her claim on Donnie now. That means she'll be even more protective of him. And I've caught his smell change when he looked at you. Sylvia may think you're a threat."

She speaks matter-of-factly, as if what she's saying is the natural order of things.

Sammy groans.  "Aargh.  Not good.  She can read minds, you know?  So she has to know.  Which means she's probably accepting of it, but still, not good.  Why does this keep happening to me?"

Alicia's eyes widen. "She reads minds, too? Madre de Dios.

"Definitely not good. You have to make it clear to her that you have no interest in him, for your sake."

She stops and looks at Sammy intently. "You have no interest in him, right?" Her nose twitches inquisitively.

Sammy moans "oh gaaaaaaaawd..." and buries her face in her hands.  "I did, a while ago.  But its over, I swear.  It was over when I figured out how much he was in love with Sylvia.  No more crush on Donnie."

OOC:  it's truth

Alicia clucks sympathetically, "S'awright, 'mana, s'awright. I got your back."

She grins evilly. "If worse comes to worse, I'll draw his attention away from you and keep Sylvia occupied."

This makes Sammy giggle.  "You're bad."  It's said kindly.  "Maybe I'll let you help me figure out all my boy troubles."

Alicia giggles back. "Any time, chica."

She gets up. "We better get going, or the guys will wonder what happened to us."

She grins again. "My turn to show off." Pulling her goggles back on, she says, "Try to keep up."

She leaps to land on a dumpster across the alley. From there, she bounces back to catch the edge of a fire escape, then jump across to a drain pipe on the wall. She shimmies up to the roof, and slides over.

Sammy gives her a head start, then starts ping ponging a path following her.

The night echoes with laughter.

OOC: Good place to close this, eh?

ok