In this scene, we get to see the almost magic way Izzorah processes scents. It is literally his superpower. He understands what each layer of scent means and can determine from scent alone which direction a person is going in making a decision. It's morning, and Izzorah wakes in Luc's house after being rescued from a bad situation. Luc had given him a handkerchief earlier, and Izzorah finds it on the floor near the bed.

The Smell of Pain

Izzorah brought Luc's handkerchief to his nose and inhaled the scent.

No cologne. That was all Luc. Izzorah's claws came out.

Wait. What was this? He drew in the scent again and puzzled over the mixtures. Bittersweet chocolate hid behind the musk of desire and tang of kai peppers. The peppers he understood. That signified risk, and no man got as rich as Luc without that. But the bittersweet... Izzorah sneezed to clear his nose and drew in the fragrance again. The bittersweet meant heartbreak, regret, loss. Yet this went deeper than Izzorah had learned to expect for the breakup Luc had gone through. The guys in Kumwhatmay had been through those. Plenty.

This was richer. Another scent rode behind it, as faint as smoke on a high wind: mint. By itself, it meant amusement. It didn't belong with bittersweet except in human chocolates.

Izzorah rubbed the cloth between fingers and thumb; it was smooth, clean. Izzorah shook out the cloth, scrunched it up and pressed it to his nose again. Bittersweet chocolate and mint, but not the kind that came from a spill of ice cream or sticky candy. This had a human aspect to it. He had no name for the scent. He'd never smelled the combination before.

The scent had faded and had a bit of Izzorah's own smell now, but there was more. Izzorah sneezed again and drew in another deep sniff. Lavender. Not soap. Human soaps added their own chemical undertone, and it had no alcohol the way cologne did. This scent came from deep within Luc.

Other Kin never understood how Izzorah did this and he'd stopped trying to explain. A single cousin had the same level of ability.

Izzorah hadn't noticed the scent when he was with Luc. After rubbing the cloth to warm it, Izzorah gave another sniff. This was pain. Not injury pain. Emotion. Inner pain. Luc hid it and it went so deep it lingered.

Lavender, bittersweet chocolate and mint. Heartbreak, loss, regret, amusement, inner pain, combined in a man as strong as Luc... Perhaps he found life amusing, yet it also hurt him. No. That did not go deep enough to explain this. Maybe he felt like an outsider looking in. Alien.

Like him.

But it was more than Luc feeling as if he had no right to belong.

Izzorah clutched the handkerchief to his chest.

"Oh, Luc! I will find a way to eliminate your pain, whatever caused it. I promise. Because if anyone has a right to belong, it's you."

When he unfolded the cloth, in one corner, a mark of white-on-white showed. He brought it up close to his face and ran a fingertip across it. The design was sewn into the cloth. Having no word for such a thing, he sniffed the spot and then licked it. No taste, but his stomach picked that moment to growl, so he stuffed the cloth into a pocket and went to find breakfast.