by L. C. Davis
Foster winced.
Fortunately, Maverick didn't seem to notice the fumbled benediction. He was sitting next to Brendan, wiping his eyes with the pack of tissues the Wolf had thought to bring him. Brendan was surprisingly considerate, especially when it came to Maverick.
"Okay, so let's take a moment to hear from Maverick, the...partner of Steven," he said, carefully choosing his words carefully. "I'm sure he has a few words to say."
Brendan leaned in to whisper something to Maverick, who nodded to him with a small smile before standing. He went up alone to stand next to Hunter, folding his hands in front of him.
"Yes," he said softly as Hunter stepped aside. "First, I'd like to say thank you all for coming. You've been more of a family to me these past few months than my own has been in the past twenty-four years."
He wrung his hands subtly and I noticed that whenever he stopped, they started trembling. I wasn't the only one who noticed his distress. Up front, Brendan was leaning forward in his seat like he was ready to pounce at any second. Clara put a hand on his shoulder and whispered something that made him relax a little. She was always putting out fires before they could start.
"Today, I'd like to say a few words about Steven Hall, my Master for the past eight --" He broke off suddenly, but he carried on strong. "For many years. I know that he wasn't very well liked at the Lodge," he said, eliciting some uncomfortable energy in the room. Even Ulric looked away. "But he was always respected, even by those who hated him. He made sure of that," Maverick said with a small laugh.
"My master was many things. He was strong, driven, successful. He always seemed like this impenetrable fortress that would just always be there. He and my father were always close. In fact, we lived right down the street from him. I can't honestly remember a time when Steven wasn't there," he said in an increasingly strained voice. "Almost my whole life, he was the one constant. He was everything. It just doesn't seem possible that someone so big, so powerful could be gone. I never even imagined there was anything more powerful than he was, and then --" He choked.
Now I was the one struggling to resist the urge to run up onto the stage to rescue him. Victor seemed to sense my distress and put his arm around my shoulder. "This is part of the process," he leaned in to whisper. "Neither of you can protect him from this."
I sat stiffly in the seat, able to feel my friend unraveling up there like a ball of twine. Victor was right, there was nothing I could do for him. That didn't mean I had to like it.
Tears slipped down Maverick's cheeks and he quickly wiped them away. "I'm sorry, I thought this would help. I thought being here would help me come to terms with the fact that he's gone and that he's never coming back," he said, gripping Hunter's podium. "I'm so sorry. I've wasted all of your time," he said, making a desperate dash for the aisle. He flew out the door with Brendan close behind him.
"Maverick!" Brendan cried.
When I leaped up from my seat, Victor pulled me back down. "No," he growled softly.
"He needs me," I hissed, baring my fangs so only he could see them.
He held eye contact, unphased. "No, right now he needs his mate. If you care about what's best for him, you will sit down."
I was still fuming, but I obeyed. Deep down, I knew he was right and it was infuriating. Maverick did need Brendan, but what were either of them supposed to do when the person Maverick needed most was also the cause of his distress?
"I hate to say it, but Victor is right," Sebastian whispered.
Thoroughly ganged up on, I crossed my arms and turned my attention to the front of the room where Hunter was attempting to regain control of the situation. He was holding two bowls, one that sloshed with water and another that was filled with what appeared to be dirt. He set them both down in front of Steven's picture and turned to face us with his hands clasped awkwardly, the prayer beads Foster had given him tangled in his fingertips.
"Okay, so I've only had this job for like an hour now, and I'm not qualified to handle any of this, but I think the right thing to do is to finish the ceremony," said Hunter, looking down at the floor. "Sorry, Foster, I'm gonna have to depart from your script."
Foster shrugged meekly, apparently as lost as the rest of us.
Hunter turned to look at Steven's memorial photograph. The man's cold grey eyes stared menacingly at us all. "I didn't know Steven, but I know enough about him to be pretty damn sure I didn't miss out on anything. Honestly, I think the guy's a prick and I couldn't care less where he spends eternity, but I think we all care about Maverick and he sure cared a hell of a lot about Steven. So, deserving or not, let's give this asshole a proper sendoff. For Maverick."
His words, uncouth though they were, echoed what we were all feeling and quelled my own selfish anger. Hunter was right. This was the closure Maverick needed, even if he couldn't be the one to get it himself.
Hunter knelt down and grabbed a handful of dirt from the bowl. "Steven Harold Hall, you began this life as a child of the earth and today you depart as such. As the sun's eyes close upon your final day, the moon's eyes open to keep you in her watchful gaze, lest your soul wander away from the Mother before taking on your next mortal form."
He tossed the dirt against Steven's photo with little hesitation. "By the earth you are devoured," he said, drawing a lighter from the pocket of his robe. He lit the edge of the photo and suddenly I understood why the easel it was resting on was made of metal rather than wood. "By flame you are refined." He knelt once the picture had been completely engulfed by flame and picked up the bowl of water. "By water you are cleansed." He dipped his hand into the water and flicked it onto the picture. It didn't seem like enough, but it successfully extinguished the flames. Hunter sat the bowl down and lifted a censer that had a pillar of thick white smoke billowing out of it.
"By air, your soul takes wing and --" He hesitated with the censer in his hand and I realized from the look on his face that he had forgotten the words. I looked to see if anyone else had noticed, and when I turned back Alex was there with his hand resting on Hunter's shoulder. He leaned in to whisper something in the fledgling priest's ear and I tried to subtly look at Victor to gauge whether he was able to see him, too.
Victor was still perfectly engrossed in the ceremony and hadn't seemed to notice anything. Sebastian looked uncomfortable, but it was hard to tell if it was just his natural disdain for anything related to death or if he was seeing a ghost, too.
"And the cycle begins anew," Hunter finished with renewed clarity. He wore a smile of relief on his face, which made me think that he hadn't seen Alex, either. Maybe he had just heard the whisper. He placed the censer down and looked to Foster. "That's it, right?"
The smaller Wolf nodded in affirmation. Even he looked proud. Slowly but surely, everyone stood and stretched. I got up quickly only to be yanked back down in the pew by Victor. "Where do you think you're going?"
"To talk with Hunter," I said, leaning in. "You need to stay with Sebastian. Once he realizes Alex really is gone, he's going to need you."
Victor gave me a disapproving look. Evidently, he still believed I was crazy, but he let me go. I moved up the aisle to where Hunter was cleaning up after the ceremony and pulled him into my arms.
"Whoa," he said, returning the hug stiffly. "Easy, it's not my funeral."
"You need to come with me to the scrying room," I whispered. "Alex wants to meet us both."
"Oh," he said, petting my hair as if in consolation. "And why exactly are we obeying the instructions of a crazy dead guy?"
"Because I think he's taking us to meet the moon," I said. "And if what he says is true, she's got the answers to questions we haven't even thought to ask. She's also possibly more of a threat than the hunters, so we have to be careful."
He pulled away and eyed me like I'd just lost my mind. "I hope you're joking."
I shook my head.
"Well, if there's even a chance that's true, I'm not letting you go alone," he muttered. "Have you told your gu
ard dogs?" he asked, nodding subtlety towards Victor and Sebastian, who were watching us closely. When they realized they were caught, Sebastian patted Victor on the back and led him out of the temple.
"No," I admitted. "They already saw me talking to Alex and they think I'm insane. I'm the only one who can see him."
"I can kind of see where they're coming from," he said, taking my hand to pull me down the aisle.
"Wait, where are we going?"
"The scrying room," he said. "Sorry."
"For what?"
"For throwing you under the bus," he replied, coming to a stop in front of Victor before I could ask for further explanation. "Hey, Victor, can I talk to you for a sec?"
Victor looked between us warily but nodded. "Of course," he said, motioning for Hunter to follow him out of the room.
A moment later, Hunter peeked through the open doors and motioned for me to come with him. Victor was watching, but he made no move to stop me from following Hunter towards the scrying room.
"What did you tell him?"
"I said you were freaking out about seeing Alex's ghost and offered to do a mumbo jumbo cleansing to put your mind at ease now that I'm a kind-of priest," he said casually.
"Great."
"Hey, better that he thinks you're crazy than both of us," he said, coming to a stop. "I have a hard enough time getting taken seriously as a witch on top of being a fucking fleur. Now, where's this room?"
"That one up ahead with the dark blue door," I said, grabbing his arm before he could go in. "Um, did you by chance see anyone standing beside you during the ceremony? A tall guy with long brown hair?"
He arched an eyebrow. "No, should I have?"
I sighed. "I don't know."
He opened the door but held an arm out to stop me from entering until he had looked around and satisfied himself with its relative safety. Once I was inside, I was relieved in a strange way to find that the writing on the walls was still there.
"'A Prince for a Kingdom?'" Hunter read aloud, squinting. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Beats me. According to Alex, it's the answer to the whole hunter problem," I murmured, looking around for any clues I had missed earlier.
Hunter knelt by the pond and leaned in, examining the black surface of the water. He looked up at the tinted window that was now pitch black since the sun's rays had long since faded. "Any idea how to move the cover?"
"No, why?"
"You're the ghost whisperer, but I don't see anything in this room," he said. "I figure if we're supposed to make contact with anything in the scrying room we're gonna have to do it by, you know, scrying."
"Do you know how to do that?" I asked, surprised. "It sounds dangerous."
"I'd be a pitiful armchair occultist if I couldn't do something as simple as scrying," he said, searching the room. "It's been around as long as humans have had shiny things to look into. Glass, water, hell, even smoke."
"Does it work?"
"Depends on what you're looking for," he said, feeling behind the bookcase. He reached deeper behind the shelf and I jolted when the glass began to slide back from the ceiling. Moonlight filtered in and glowed vividly in the stark black pond. "There we go."
"Color me impressed. I'm not sure what to do from here, though. Alex promised he'd be here as soon as we could get away."
"Well, we don't have time to wait. The brooding poet and the linebacker will be here any minute. Especially if your friend Val wakes up and tells them Alex really is dead."
He had a point. "I don't even know how to turn this thing on," I said, gesturing to the pond.
Hunter looked up at the moon. "Well, she's directly above us. That can't be a coincidence," he said, motioning for me to kneel with him beside the water.
"Can you do it?" I asked warily.
"Scrying with the moon can't be all that different from scrying with a demon," he said casually.
"A demon?"
"Oh, stop it, you sound like my mother," he grumbled. "I got tired of talking through the spirit board. There's usually something, some way to activate the link. Blood, more often than not."
"Oh, no. No blood sacrifices," I said firmly.
"Do you want answers or not?"
I sighed. "Fine. What do I have to do?"
"Bite me," he said, holding out his hand.
"What? No, I'm not going to bite you!"
He rolled his eyes. "I don't have a blade on me and we're short on time. Just nick the tip of my finger, all we need is a drop."
I hesitated, but he was right. We didn't have time and my thirst had ceased to be a problem since my wolf and vampire halves had been united. I took his hand and grazed his fingertip with the tip of my fang. It was enough to draw a thin trickle of blood.
Hunter's eyes became glassy and he shuddered. "Whoa...Jason wasn't kidding about that," he muttered.
"What?"
"N-nothing," he said, turning away from me as he held his hand over the pond. Each droplet formed ripples in the moonlit water.
"Your turn," he said when nothing happened.
I bit my own wrist with far less hesitation, at least until a wave of pleasure slammed me. It was my turn to shudder and suddenly I knew why Hunter was being so awkward.
He blinked at me. "Did your weird vampire sex bite just backfire on you?"
"This never happened," I growled, holding my bleeding wrist over the water.
He grinned. "What happens in the scrying room stays in the scrying room."
I was about to reply when the water began to tremble. It took a moment to realize that the cause was footsteps coming down the hall rather than anything supernatural.
"Remus!" Sebastian's voice boomed as he came down the hall. "Hunter, get out of there!"
I moved to stand, but Hunter grabbed my arm. "Remus, look," he said, staring at the water.
When I turned around, the water was swirling. The blood that had disappeared into the blackness of the water was now glowing as it spiraled in the pond. "It's working," I breathed as something huge hit the wall behind us.
The something huge was Sebastian but as he staggered back and stared in bewilderment at the open door, I realized he hadn't hit the wall at all. At least, not a physical wall. Victor appeared a moment later and when he tried to enter the room, he found out firsthand what had stopped Sebastian. There was some kind of invisible barrier across the door.
Victor examined the force field, growling. "Get out of there, both of you. That's an order."
"You were right," said Sebastian, his expression a mixture of panic and grief. "Alex is dead. He killed himself last week, right after we left."
Victor followed Hunter's transfixed gaze to the swirling water. "Holy shit," he whispered. "Don't touch that, Hunter. Back off slowly."
"We can't," Hunter murmured, leaning in further. "She wants to talk to us." He dipped his fingers into the water and held his hand out to me. I didn't trust the strange look in his eyes. "Come on, Remus. There isn't much time."
"Don't you dare take his hand," said Victor. "She can't be trusted. When Alex died, Val remembered everything the moon did to them. She's not the benevolent deity we all thought, you have no idea what she's capable of."
"But I do," I said earnestly. "After everything Alex told me, I have to talk to her. It's the only way, Victor."
"Goddammit, no!" he snarled, slamming his fists against the invisible wall.
"Remus, you don't have to do this," said Sebastian. "Whatever Alex told you, you're not responsible --"
"It's Ulric," I told them, fighting back the tears in my eyes. The water was swirling behind me so rapidly that I could hear its impatient whooshing. "He'll die if I don't find a way to stop it. Alex showed me what's going to happen in a dream last night. If I don't talk to her, we'll all lose him. We could lose everything."
Sebastian's face went blank while Victor grew more enraged. "Ulric would forbid it and you know it! Sebastian, where the hell is he?"
He shrugged, still ma
king eye contact with me. "You think she'll listen to you?"
I nodded hesitantly. "She needs me. If she didn't, she wouldn't have sent you to me."
Victor turned on Sebastian, enraged. "Are you insane?"
Sebastian ignored him, giving me a somber nod. "You tell that bitch I'm coming for her if she lays a finger on the old man."
I smiled gratefully and clasped Hunter's hand. "Thank you," I mouthed, reaching for the water.
"No!" Victor cried. The bookshelf trembled and a few books flew across the room, reminding me of the telekinetic ability he had only demonstrated one other time when he had locked me in Ulric's study before taking my memories.
For an instant, I was terrified that he was going to stop us, but a powerful gust of wind blew the door shut without upsetting anything else in the room. Victor pounded violently on the door and the doorknob clattered with his attempts to get in, but it was all to no avail. If Sebastian couldn't get through, Victor didn't stand a chance.
I turned back to the water and hesitated only a second before I reached into the pond to join Hunter. The next instant, I was standing on a grassy beach overlooking the black water that rippled with the moon's light. My hand was still clasped with Hunter's and we both looked around in confusion.
"Is this typical?" I asked, searching for any sign of Alex or the moon that wasn't hanging in the sky.
"Usually when I scry the results are more of a hellish landscape than a romance novel setting," he said, still holding my hand firmly. "Personally, I think I prefer the fire and brimstone."
I wasn't sure I disagreed with him. When I started to let go of his hand, he jerked mine back. "Don't. You ever play with a spirit board?"
"No, but I've seen the movies."
"Well, our hands are creating a circle of protection. It's the only thing keeping us together and tied to the physical world," he said. "Let go and we're fair game to whatever lives here."
"Such as?"
"There's a whole phone book of entities from A to Z and trust me, you wouldn't like most of them."