Jason nodded. "Yeah. I'm Jason. Argosh called to make sure I knew you were coming."
Xairin was impressed at how strong the man's handshake was. It was that type of handshake that flowed with confidence, not overconfidence, but confidence. "Argosh called me yesterday. He told me to make sure that I came straight here."
Jason nodded. "We're not used to having vampires on tribal lands."
Xairin looked at him shyly. "I kinda figured that. When I stopped to ask for directions, I kept getting odd looks."
Jason shrugged. "Yeah, it's probably a good thing Argosh called the Elders ahead of time. Anyhow, he said you wanted to visit Alex's resting place?"
Xairin nodded slowly. "Yeah. I would like to. He, he was a friend."
Jason exhaled. He turned around and went into the office and got a set of keys. "I will drive."
Xairin perked up. "Oh, I can drive and follow you up there or wherever it is we are going."
Jason walked past Xairin and looked out into the parking lot. There was a cobalt blue hover jeep sitting there. It was brand new. It stuck out. Jason turned around. "No, really, you're coming with me. The wolves don't care too much about strangers being where we bury our dead, plus most of us here don't care too much for what some call technological trappings. Come on. I promise I won't bite."
Xairin looked at him. "Okay."
Xairin reached into his front pocket and put on his sun goggles.
The pair rode in Jason's green 2029 fully restored, Chevy avalanche. Jason had found the vehicle on the side of the road in one of the quarantine zones after the Mellitus-32 virus had destroyed a township near Flow. One of his passions was fixing cars, which is what led him to have the best mechanic shop in all of Flow.
Xairin was quiet as he looked out the window. Jason took him on a dirt road that had branched off a side street between two houses. The path they were traveling on wasn't too bumpy. You could tell that it had been smoothed out a few times. Xairin seemed quiet.
Jason kept his eyes on the road for deer and potholes that may have formed since the last work had been done to keep the dirt road drivable. "What really brings you here?"
Xairin kept looking out the window. "I fought with Alex. He, he helped me." Xairin looked over at Jason. "I just wanted to pay my respects."
Xairin looked forward at the road ahead. "Alex never told me he had a brother. I thought he said he lived by himself in a cabin somewhere?"
Jason seemed a little distant. "I'm not surprised. Alex was older than me. By the time I came into the picture, Alex was grown up and on his own."
Xairin looked over at Jason. "You kind of remind me of him. You look like him."
Jason frowned. "Well, we had the same dad, so…"
Xairin seemed a little curious. He wanted to know more about Alex. He felt like he owed him that, so he could better carry his memory. "Alex has a different mother from you?"
Jason kept his eyes on the road, he seemed a little colder. "Had… Alex's mother died when he was a kid, I think. Murdered by a vampire that attacked our lands. The same thing with my brother Daniel, he died at the hands of a weredeer, and Daniel’s mother in a werepuma attack. Now it's just my dad and me."
"Alex never said much about any of you," Xairin mentioned.
"Not surprised. Our dad can be an asshole. Part of why none of us were ever close. We each had different mothers and our dad is off trying to fuck the next bitch in heat to make sure he has an heir to carry on the family lines."
Xairin was put off by that. He realized that there was definitely a nerve that he had just drilled into without meaning to do so. He just looked forward. "I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't pry. I'm sorry."
Jason looked over briefly. "Don't be. I accepted the fact that my father was a bastard years ago."
Jason wanted to segue the conversation quickly. "So did you know my brother before the sentinels, or during?" Jason asked.
Xairin wasn't sure how to answer that question at first. He knew he wasn't allowed to divulge the fact he was a sensitive dhampling. The Council didn't want that information out yet, at least, not until the Conclave was destroyed, and Lilith had been recovered. They just couldn't chance more powerful immortals coming into play until the Conclave was dust. Xairin chose his words wisely. "Um, actually, before… He, he was my guardian until I was better prepared to defend myself."
"What are you, a late bloomer? A younger immortal?" Jason asked.
Xairin nodded. "Yeah, I'm just twenty-eight years old. But yeah, I um, well, my Immortality didn't assert itself until a few months ago."
Jason could understand that. "My Immortality didn't kick in until I was twenty-six. I remember the day it happened, woke up in a cold sweat, feeling like I could vibrate off the bed. I hated when it happened. Took me a month to get used to it. Not to mention It gets kind of awkward when I'm in the same room with my dad since his Immortality kicked in when he was seventeen."
"I know, right!" Xairin said. "And yeah, that cold sweat." He added, trying to lie convincingly. "I totally know how that feels. My grandmother, Sara, looks like she's old enough to be my younger sister, and my mom, well, she looks my age. It's totally weird for me. And then there is my uncle, I mean, he looks like a teenager also. It just feels so… Weird."
Jason looked over, "I thought vamps had hot flashes when your immortal cells started to wake up?"
Xairin shrugged. "Maybe the regular vamps do, but my mom said it was different for those of us related to Lilith." He shrugged. "Maybe it's because we're immune to silver, I don't know."
Xairin had said that lie perfectly. It came off quick, and convincing. Jason nodded. "Must be nice, being immune to silver. I've actually been shot a few times. It sucks, man."
"Really?" Xairin asked.
Jason nodded. "Damn werewolf hunters. Part of why we have our graveyard Xairin. If it's not some crazy immortal, it's fucking hunters’ man."
Xairin looked at him. "I've never met a monster hunter yet. Like, that has to be some scary stuff, dealing with them, right?"
Jason shrugged. "It sometimes can be, especially if they're experienced. I’ve killed about nine, maybe ten of them, the last one was about two decades ago, now that one, he almost got me. So, what's it like being a prince?"
Xairin sighed. "It can be so annoying, honestly. I mean, usually I can handle pressure and stuff, but I have to be honest. I feel a bit overwhelmed with it at times. I'm not used to having to help make decisions that could affect the lives of others."
Jason was picking up on the way Xairin talked. He first started out with a deep sexy voice, and now, he had a deep sexy voice, with a certain softness to it. Jason looked over then back at the road. "So do I call you a prince? Address you as your highness? Argosh wasn't exactly specific on that."
Xairin looked over. "Please, just use my first name. I, I'm still getting used to this whole, being the descendant of Lilith stuff."
Jason was curious. He was dodging a few holes in the road, which didn't stop a beat in him asking. "Wait, you didn't know?"
Xairin had to be more careful, he knew that. He was silent for a moment. "Sara, my grandmother, uh, she separated each of us when she went into hiding. She somehow has a power that when she made me drink her blood, it forced me to become a late bloomer and honestly chanced it by hiding me in foster care. I had no freaking clue what I was. Hell, I thought I was just a sensitive since I had powers and stuff. It wasn't till after when my blood cravings started."
"Queen Jordan can do that? Wow, too bad Lilith never had that ability. She might have been able to better hide some of her previous children." Jason said.
Xairin played it up. " She might have, but then again, if she could I may not be here.”
Jason caught what he just said. “I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t think of that, but at least your grandmother was able to do it.”
Xairin sighed. “Well, it honestly sucked. I had to finish my teenage years in foster care, not knowing really much of anything. I literal
ly was kind of ignorant until it was time for them to find me and start bringing me up to speed. It was why Alex was assigned to me, basically keep me safe, keep me from being around other vampires, you know, that whole mark of death on my shoulder blade giving me away and all."
"The moon birthmark, is true then?" Jason asked.
Xairin nodded while frowning. "Sure is. I have it, my mother, my uncle, and, well, you call her Queen Jordan so... She has it too."
"Why be a sentinel then?" Jason asked.
Xairin looked at the trees they were passing. The forest was getting thicker. "Basically, Mr. Fifer, I wanted to learn to fight and hide in plain sight until it was time."
Jason halfway leaned over and eyed Xairin, "Call me Jason. Mr. Fifer makes me sound, well, old."
Xairin playfully smirked as they hit a pothole. "Damn, that was a good one," Xairin said.
"Good thing I upgraded the suspension with a Bolitrix beam, and shock absorbers with Tetragine coils," Jason said.
Xairin seemed clueless. "I don't know what those are."
Jason smiled, "A little something from the now, to upgrade something from the past."
“That’s really cool.” Xairin said.
Jason looked over at Xairin looking out the window. He had an innocence about him, he seemed kind, yet hardened. He had a beauty about him that Jason found alluring. He also loved the dimples Xairin had going on as he smiled while he looked out the window. The way his neatly trimmed facial hair moved when he grinned, and his green eyes, red hair, and again, those dimples, had Jason losing focus. He hit another pothole. “Damn!”
“Everything okay?” Xairin asked.
"Yes, just this bumpy road. Before we get there, there are a few things you need to know." Xairin looked over at Jason.
"Sure? What do I need to know?" Xairin asked.
Jason looked forward. "Our pack, when one of our immortals passes, the remains, when we can collect it. There won't be a tombstone, Xairin. Soon we will be reaching the apple orchard. Each death, the remains are placed at the bottom of a small hole, and a tree, an apple tree is planted above it."
"It's our way of allowing the dead to live on and nourish the land. Close to our burial site is the hunting grounds. Deer and other life, come from all over to the orchard, and in return, they're hunted to nourish the pack, as our dead live on through giving back to nature through the tree they nourish, and in return the wildlife that feeds off the apples, nourishes the pack that hunts outside the orchard."
He looked at Xairin. "When the trees are old enough, the name of the lost is carved upon them, for now, a stone is placed. I must ask you to not touch any trees, not even the sapling that my father and I planted over Alex's remains. It is our custom."
Xairin nodded. "I understand, Jason."
"Be sure you do Xairin. Don't even lean against one. Pay your respects, and then I will escort you back to the truck." Jason said.
Xairin pulled out two packets of seeds, clover seeds, and dandelion seeds. "Argosh, when he called me yesterday, he made sure to tell me of a few ideas to leave at Alex's burial site. I brought these."
Jason smiled. "Clover will nourish the rabbits that come, and the bees when they are in bloom. Dandelions will do the same. It is an old custom to make a wish when you scatter the dandelion seeds. A wish that the departed finds peace in the afterlife."
Xairin clinched the packets and looked forward. The only thing he wished for was Alex to forgive him for hurting him with his bat cry. Even if it was an accident, Xairin never felt like he had any closure in making amends for hurting a friend. Xairin had studied up on some of the customs over the past three days before he finally got the courage to go. That was going to be his wish.
The orchard had numerous paths laid out, lined with white pebbles to establish the walkways around the trees. The orchard was thick with apple trees, some of them towering. The trees looked healthier than any apple tree Xairin had ever laid eyes upon. They were massive, vibrant, and most of them in bloom.
Jason pulled the truck into a designated parking area that was lined with larger stones to border the parking area, giving it distinction. Xairin got out slowly, he looked around with his vampiric eyes and could see life in abundance. Birds nesting, spiders making webs, ants crawling and carrying food back to their homes. He saw squirrels dancing on the branches, and a hawk perched, watching below. He asked. "The remains, the liquid we all turn into if we die, is this why these trees look like this?" He turned around right as he was still standing beside the truck. "I've never seen apple trees this gorgeous before."
Jason reached his hands over the hood of the truck and leaned forward as he looked at the handsome vampire. Part of him was checking him out, the other part, listening. "Yes. Some say that's how the whole forbidden fruit legend was started."
Xairin looked at him. "Are you serious?"
Jason smirked. "When Lilith is found, maybe you should ask her about Elohim. I think the Jews called him YHWH."
Xairin scoffed. "The Christian god is an Aeonian?"
Jason smirked. "So, they say."
Xairin looked at him as he too reached over the hood of the truck and rested forward. "Is every god or goddess in all of our history, an Aeonian or an Immortium?"
Jason smiled, “Seems that way. “He started walking toward a stone pathway.
Xairin tilted his head and looked at Jason walking off. His head adjusted twice as he looked around the area and then cocked his head as he followed behind the werewolf. The sun glare was less harsh along the path thanks to the trees. Xairin chanced it and slowly pulled his sun goggles down. The glare was a little irritating, but it seemed, Xairin's eyes were adjusting.
"How far is it?" Xairin asked.
Jason looked over his shoulder. His blue uniform was tight-fitting, showing off his broad shoulders. The man had a pleasing posterior view. Xairin raised his left eyebrow. Jason replied. "It isn't far from here. Just stay close to me."
Xairin kept up an even pace and started walking side by side with Jason. Xairin kept his eyes on everything around him. The further they went, the more animals emerged, nestling and feeding off the green, yellow and red apples all around them. The trees were beyond healthy, Xairin could feel the energy coming off of them. It was calming. Jason was smiling. The way Xairin smiled and seemed intrigued by nature, tempted Jason into wanting to know more about him. He was getting the gay vibe but was afraid to just come out and ask. Trying to date, hadn’t gone well for Jason in the past due to his father’s controlling nature and the fact his father protested heavily what he called a lifestyle choice.
They finally reached the end of the orchard where Xairin could see an expansion of trees starting. They were small, some a few feet, others a little taller than Xairin, and some just barely poking out of the ground. The one Jason stopped at was one such tree. It was clear, they started these trees from seeds.
There was a flat stone that was oblong. It had Alex's name carved in it and was about three feet out from the little seedling that was emerging from the freshly dug black dirt. Around it, was a circular ring made up of twelve black river stones. Xairin's eyes took it all in.
Xairin's breathing slowed. He looked over at Jason, and then back at the small tree, barely a few inches tall. He took another look at the greyish stone with Alex Renae Fifer's name carved in it. It had a date, but only the date of death. June 28th, 2118.
Jason was rather blunt about it. "You can scatter the seeds anywhere you like around the stones. Just make sure when you use the dandelions, you make a wish. It is customary when dandelion seeds are presented. Typically, a wish that they pass on is the normal custom."
Xairin looked at him. "I have something in mind."
Jason nodded. "I will leave you to it then."
Jason walked off, while Xairin knelt down. He scattered the clover first, then as he held tightly to the dandelion seeds, he wished deeply, thought loudly, and felt every bit of remorse he had for hurting Alex. He wished Alex could f
orgive him. After a few minutes, and a few tears, he spread the seeds around the outside of the black stone circle. "I will find the man that did this to you, Alex, that is a promise," Xairin said lowly.
Xairin remained knelt down for several minutes as he just stared at the small tree, the stones, and the dirt that he had scattered the seeds to honor the pack's customs.
Jason walked off to give Xairin his space. As weird as it was for Jason to have thoughts like this in the burial grounds, especially while visiting his brother’s grave, he kept looking at the vampire. He was handsome, one of the most handsome men Jason had seen in a while. Not to mention, he couldn’t take his eyes off Xairin’s perfect bubble butt, while he was bent over. “Damn.” Jason thought.
Xairin slowly stood up and kept his eye contact with the hand-carved river rock that someone had carved Alex's name on. Now, he felt compelled to visit Rory again, hoping this time, he could just be there by himself. He wanted desperately to make the same promise.
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