by L. C. Davis
My heart palpitated when I thought of how close we had come to being lost in some other world. "Don't break the circle. Got it."
"My, what a clever boy you've become, Hunter." The speaker had a smooth female voice that seemed to come from all around us. "Just imagine what you could do if you were properly initiated."
We both spun around to see a woman who fit the specifications of the statue in the temple down to every last detail coming towards us from one of the cliffs. Her long white hair and youthful features glowed in such a way that made her identity unquestionable. When she opened her eyes, they were the color of pure silver.
"It's you," I breathed. Even knowing what I did of her capricious nature, it was difficult not to be moved by the goddess' beauty. Her sheer white gown rustled in the same breeze that stirred the tall grasses on the cliffs, yet left us strangely untouched.
"It's good to see that you recognize me in my true form, sweet child," she said, her voice deceptively gentle. It was a moment-by-moment struggle to remember who she was and what she was capable of. The image of Ulric's corpse from the dream was enough to return me to clarity.
Hunter, on the other hand, was smitten. He sank to his knees and I almost lost my grip on his hand.
"You're real," he murmured, awestruck.
Her benevolent smile turned into a sneer, revealing her true nature and breaking her spell. At least for me. "You called upon me. Shouldn't you know that already?"
His mouth hung open slightly, as if he wanted to answer but couldn't. He was starstruck--or moonstruck, as it were.
Great. It looked like I was alone in this.
"Hey," I said sharply. My irreverence succeeded at drawing her attention away from Hunter. "I'm the one you've been stalking all year and now I'm here, so talk."
I was prepared for rage, not for the musical laugh I got in response. "My, you have grown bold. I remember when you were nothing but a mewling whelp who didn't even have the strength to utter the word no."
"I know what you did to Alex," I said firmly. "I also know you're just using me to act out your decision between the wolves and the vampires. Forgive me if my heart isn't filled with worship."
"You're forgiven," she said snidely. "I see you've been speaking with my AWOL priest."
"He served you faithfully for decades," I said through gritted teeth. "And you did nothing but torment him and the people he loved. Is that what you have planned for Hunter?" I asked, staring down at my friend who was still on his knees, gawking at the goddess.
"Of course not," she said, crossing her arms in a decidedly non-ethereal gesture. "Hunter is special. Alex was a plaything. He was amusing for a time, but that soon ran his course. Truth be told, I'm glad he jumped ship. Spares me the trouble of keeping up with him in the afterlife."
"He can't even reincarnate now!" I cried. "His soul is trapped. Doesn't that bother you even a little?"
"Not really," she said. "It's not like I made him eat a Smith & Wesson."
"You're as bad as the Patriarch is," I said in disgust. "Maybe even worse. At least he looks after his own once he's done using them."
"Look at you. Have an encounter with one of the great cosmic forces of the universe and suddenly you think you know everything," she said wryly. "You know nothing about my husband. He won't stop until all life on earth is extinct. All I require is one measly sacrifice, and I'm the bad guy?"
"Sacrifice?" Hunter asked, coming out of the moon's trance.
"My, he was in a chatting mood," she said, keeping her focus on me and ignoring him. "No matter. Yes, you're the sacrifice. Haven't you realized it yet? It's one of your gifts. You've thrown yourself on the pyre to save just one of your loved ones a number of times--even to save one of the monsters who tormented you. Is it so awful to be given the opportunity to fulfill your purpose and die for everyone you love?"
My heart quickened as she spoke. "There's a way?" I asked, afraid to hope. "A way to save all of them?"
"There is," she said softly, bringing her hands together. "You are the unification of the best qualities in both of my flawed and beloved children. For years I've waited for your birth, the proof Mother Gaia needs that there is good to be found within both of my children. And now your death is the sacrifice required to return them to harmony with nature."
"The curse. You want to bring the children of the night back to their original states before the wolves transformed violently and the vampires drank blood."
"An exorcism," she said in a breathless voice. "A purification by blood."
"My blood," I murmured.
"Who else's? You are the only pure creature left on this earth. The last true prince."
"A prince for a kingdom," I whispered, tears stinging my eyes. Suddenly the message made perfect sense. "My life in exchange for the kingdom of the wolves."
"Or the vampires," she said. "That would depend on whether you chose Victor or Sebastian. Of course, you don't need to make such a difficult decision permanently if you're willing to sacrifice yourself. They can both live on without you."
"You know that's not even a question," I gritted out.
She smiled. "Just reminding you that there is always a choice, even when it comes to making a choice in the first place.
"Are you sure it will work?" I asked. "How do you even know the earth will accept your sacrifice?"
"You leave the worrying to the grownups. All you have to do is be a good boy and die."
"If you never really wanted me to choose, why set all this up?" I asked. "And why use two wolves? Why not a wolf and a vampire?"
"So many questions," she said with a bored sigh. "You still have to choose between the two of them. There is an undeniable order to these things that must be fulfilled. Think of it like a ritual that started long before you were born. However, once you have chosen between Victor and Sebastian, you may choose to die in place of the one you didn't choose," she said slowly. "In doing so, you will die in place of the kingdom he represents."
I swallowed hard. "Victor has a vampire soul, doesn't he?"
She nodded.
"How?"
"A little mystery never hurt any relationship," she said flippantly. "Now, hurry up and choose so I don't have to. The clock is ticking and trust me, you don't want to let this harvest moon pass you by like the last one."
"I can't choose. That's the problem, I've tried."
"Gee, you think it might have something to do with the fact that you haven't transformed yet?" she mused, planting a hand on her hip. She took on a mocking voice and made a hand puppet, which was clearly supposed to be me. "'Oh, I don't know. I'm just a werewolf-vampire prince, I don't think being the product of two supernatural creatures could possibly have anything to do with this. If only I had a dictionary so I could look up the meaning of the word hybrid!'"
I watched her in a mixture of irritation and bewilderment. "I'm glad you find this funny."
"Actually, it's hilarious," she said matter-of-factly, dropping her hands. "At least until you fuck it up and Gaia massacres my children. Then it won't be so funny. If that happens, I'm going to make sure everyone who's as much as said hello to you drops dead, but only after suffering immensely. You know, if they haven't already been wiped out and banished to the aether with the others."
"Okay, I get it," I muttered. "What about the Patriarch?"
"He can't touch you until the hunter's moon," she said confidently. "As long as you find a way to transform by the harvest moon and make your choice, I'll handle the rest."
"I can't just transform. It only happened last night because I had a nightmare," I said, trailing off. As I spoke, it occurred to me. "That wasn't Alex. It was you."
"Another clever boy," she purred. "That was just a little hint. A taste of things to come, if you will. Go with your nature and sacrifice yourself or let the ones you love pass away. As always, it's your choice."
"And what about Ulric?" I asked warily. "His death was different from the others. Is he going to die no matter wh
at I do?"
"Don't read into things so much," she huffed. "I know how important dear old dad is to you. It was just a way to get your attention. I'll give you another dream in a couple of nights. Find a way to slip the royal guard and transform."
"I will," I promised somberly. "How will I know when I've chosen?"
"The ritual," she said, gesturing to Hunter. "I even gave you a priest. This is practically Paint-by-Number."
I looked down at Hunter worriedly. He was still dazed. "What did you do to him?"
"He's a mortal in the presence of a goddess," she said, shrugging. "I didn't have to do much."
"So why am I not quite as enamored with you?"
"You're the hybrid prince. You're about as mortal as I am, at least until the harvest moon when the veil is thin and we become vulnerable on the earthly plane."
Her words jolted me. "Then the Patriarch will be vulnerable, too, won't he? He's using a hunter as a vessel, but he'll still be semi-mortal."
"Indeed he will be," she said. "But not until the sunrise of the hunter's moon. Different kingdom, different celestial correspondence. That you can leave to me, especially considering the fact that you'll be...you know," she said, drawing a finger across her throat.
"Right," I said, filing the information away for later. "There is one more thing I wanted to ask you."
"Go ahead, I'm in a benevolent mood."
"Do you know where my mother is?"
She blinked. "The vampire? I thought you hated her."
"I don't hate her," I said grudgingly. "You're watching me at all times, right? You must know where she is."
"Of course I know. That doesn't mean I'm going to tell you."
"Why not?" I asked, frowning. "You're forthcoming about everything else. Why is Sarah such a sore subject?"
The goddess sneered at me. "I did make a mistake gifting you with intuition. I couldn't have gone with something flashy like levitation or something useful like making sandwiches. It had to be the know-it-all gift."
"What did you do to Sarah?" I demanded.
"I didn't do anything," she said with a snort. "At least not since last year."
"Okay, what did you do to her last year?" I asked, feeling like I was interrogating a djinn. You had to ask for the exact bit of information you wanted.
"I punished her for her reckless misinterpretation of the ritual," she said simply. "She wrecked the whole thing by almost killing Victor. I'm not a fan of servants who try to jump the shark on my own prophecy."
"Wait, how did you punish her?"
"I took her family. Most of it, anyway."
I felt a pang of remorse that didn't even make sense. Sarah's troupe had kidnapped me, held me against my will and threatened Victor's life. Even so, I couldn't get Saban's image out of my mind. Before I could ask whether he had been one of her casualties, the moon continued, "Now, if you'll excuse me, our time here is almost up and I still haven't initiated my priest."
She turned to Hunter and I instinctively moved in front of him. She pushed me away and pressed her hand against his face. "Sorry, dear, but you put this off for too long. Now it's a crash course.
"No!" I cried when light shot out from her hand and enveloped Hunter. There was little else I could do without letting go of his hand and trapping us both in this strange plane forever. The light expanded and was impossible to block out even with my eyes screwed shut. Hunter's screams drowned out the sound of the ocean and chased away the theory we had been counting on, the idea that nothing in this world could hurt us as long as we held onto each other.
The light faded suddenly and the moon was standing there, watching my friend with satisfaction. I dropped to my knees and examined him. He had stopped screaming and seemed conscious, but not fully aware. I tilted his head back revealing the hexagonal star that had been carved into his face, from his forehead to his chin. Suddenly my hand was wet and slick and I looked down in horror at the blood streaming down from his sleeves. I pulled them back to reveal a long vertical string of symbols like the ones in his books covering the entire length of his forearm. His other arm was the same way.
When I turned to face the moon, she was smiling serenely. "Unlike Alex, I have no plans of letting this one go. He just needed a bit of incentive to stay on the right path. No one wants a pack leader with a carved up face."
"What happened to free will?" I cried, holding Hunter's limp body against my chest.
She shrugged. "Free will is for gods, not men. Some matters are too important to leave to choice. Remember that when you're making your decision," she said, walking back up the cliff she had come down from. "It's a gift."
Before I could respond, she was gone. I turned back to Hunter and tried to apply pressure to his wounds only to realize they had already stopped bleeding. I held him close and whispered empty reassurances. He was in shock and in no state to get us back to the temple. On the other hand, I didn't have the first clue how.
"I'm so sorry."
The familiar voice came from behind us. I turned sharply and saw Alex walking towards us. "You brought us here," I seethed. "You knew she would do this to him."
He shook his head, kneeling on Hunter's other side. He tilted the younger wolf's chin towards him to get a better look at the mark carved into his face, then the ones on his arms. "Not this," he murmured. "I never thought she would go this far."
"What did she do?" I asked, still in a state of shock of my own. "Why did she put these symbols on him?"
"The ironic truth? They're a gift," said Alex. "Symbols of power in the language of the gods. This one is a mark that allows passage into the aether," he said, pointing to a mark on Hunter's arm that simply looked like a series of three lines with small circles on the ends. Next, he pointed to a semicircle surrounding a runic letter. "This one will enable him to see the spirit world. There are others, but it would take too long to explain and you're already due back. I can't hold you here much longer. Suffice it to say, she has given him every priestly gift possible. A truly prolific priest might acquire three, maybe four of these abilities in his entire lifetime."
"How can he handle that?" I asked, holding Hunter closer. "He's just a kid."
"Your friend is capable of more than either of you believe if he's still breathing after being marked so brutally," he murmured. "She wouldn't have blessed him so if she didn't have great plans for him." His tone was reverent but there was a hint of envy in it.
"I'd hardly call this a blessing."
"Not to one who wishes for a different life," he agreed. "Ask Foster and he might have a different opinion. I'll admit, this is far more excessive than what she did to me. I expect she thinks he'll become devoted to her for lack of any other option."
"That's sick," I hissed.
"Why do you think I took the bullet train out of this junction?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"And if Hunter refuses to serve her?"
"Then the ones he loves will suffer," he said flatly.
"Like Val?"
"Yes. Evidently, my former lady saw fit to inform her of the sacrifice I made all those years ago and now Val blames herself for what happened," he said sadly. "It seems even I underestimated her cruelty."
"She's a monster. She's just as bad as the Patriarch if not worse."
"You may be right," he said casually.
"There has to be a way to stop her, to stop all of this."
Alex chuckled. "Having second thoughts about the sacrifice?"
"Of course not. A prince for a kingdom," I murmured. "It's more than a fair trade, I'm just worried about what will happen when I'm gone."
"I'll be around, especially now that Billy is gone."
I frowned. "What happened to him?"
He shook his head. "You need to go. You have other matters to attend to. I will promise you this. Now that Hunter can see the dead, I'll look after him and teach him what I can. I can't leave the sanctuary, so do your best to get him to come here."
"I'll try," I promised, dr
aping Hunter's arm over my shoulder to help him stand. "How do we get out of here?"
"The same way you got in," he said, nodding to the black ocean.
"Great," I muttered, dragging Hunter along with me towards the water. I put a foot into the water and turned back to see Alex waving. As we continued on, the water crept up further and further until both our heads were submerged. Something yanked us under and just when I was convinced that I had walked us both to our deaths, our heads bobbed above the surface of the pond in the scrying room. I struggled to hold Hunter's head out of the water in his semi-conscious state as the pounding on the door resulted in an explosion.
A second later, Sebastian stumbled into the room like a human battering ram. He looked at us in bewilderment but wasted no time dropping to his knees by the pond.
"Take him," I gasped, pushing Hunter in his direction. Victor grabbed me immediately and Ulric rushed into the room soon after. I could hear the others murmuring in the hall.
I was still choking on the blood-tinged water when Victor pulled me out. He looked between me and the shallow water in dismay. "Did you seriously almost drown in a decorative pond?"
I clung to him like a rescued child, terrified that his solid presence would fade and I'd be back on the other plane. How to even begin to answer his question when I had no idea what had happened myself?
"Holy shit," muttered Sebastian. He had Hunter in his arms and had evidently discovered the mark on his face. It was hard to miss. Sebastian and Victor exchanged a look of horror before they turned to me.
"What happened?" they asked in unison.
"The moon," I said, coughing up another mouthful of water as I tore myself from Victor's arms.
"More like the devil from the looks of this child," Ulric said in a dark tone, taking Hunter from Sebastian's arms. "Clara!" he called, pushing the others out of the way as he whisked the newly initiated priest out of the room.
I was still struggling to catch my breath as I rose to follow them. "No," Victor growled, holding me to his chest. "You're not going anywhere."
Sebastian got to his feet and blocked the door. "Show's over, nobody's dead. Brendan, take Ulric's SUV and get everyone home," he said, tossing the keys to him.