Lunacy (11 page)

"Well, damn." I murmured, looking downward.

Jynxx had his head in his hands, the silky curtain of
his hair falling forward around his face. I put my hand on his knee
and rubbed it comfortingly, not knowing what else to do for him. He
looked down at me from his seat on the couch, and there were unshed
tears in his eyes. He covered it by closing them and pinching the
bridge of his nose instead. "Sorry, guys..." He sighed. "This is
just a bit much to take in all at once."

Elomina nodded sympathetically. "Perfectly
understandable, Jynxx. But unfortunately, today will be filled with
things that are hard to take in. For instance, the next samling,
gathering, is next Saturday. That is the next eve when the full
moon begins. Seeing how you react to Skadhi's presence, it's only a
matter of days before your first transformation happens all on its
own. With that being the case, we must present you to the entirety
of the Clan as their leader in one week's time."

Jynxx and I were both dumbstruck to silence. She
nodded at the horrified expressions on our faces. "You both have
much you need to learn. And I may well make your first lesson how
to force a change, Kacea. It will be painful, for both of you, but
it is a useful skill and we can monitor Jynxx without fearing for
anyone's safety. Since Conner spends more time in ulv form than any
of the others, he shall assist you."

"Thanks for volunteering me, Mina." He stuck out his
tongue at her.

Something had been bothering me the last few minutes.
"Um, guys... Did Jimmy know about this already?"

Everyone froze, telling me without words that they
hadn't told him, and hadn't intended for him to know. Not just yet,
anyway. We all looked to where he sat on the couch beside Gavin,
and I say "sat" loosely. He was more slumped over to the side,
passed out with his head on the arm of the couch. His lips were
parted and he was drooling slightly, and I couldn't resist a small
chuckle at how adorable he looked.

We all breathed a sigh of relief, followed by Jynxx
voicing what we were all thinking. "When can we tell him? If he
never changes, do we never let him know?"

Elomina gave a very Gallic shrug. "The likelihood of
the genes passing him by is very slim. There is a small
possibility, but then it would be up to you whether to inform him
or not. He could be in danger either way."

If he’d been my brother, I would have told him. He
had much more of a fighting chance if he knew what he was dealing
with, especially in a combat situation. But Jimmy wasn’t my
brother, so it wasn’t my place to say anything. Jynxx speaking
again took me away from my troubled thoughts.

“We’ll worry about that when it comes to it. As for
this whole shifting thing…” he trailed off, saying it with a snarl
like it was a dirty word.

Elomina sighed. “I suppose it is the best place to
start.” She got up and Conner, Jynxx, and I followed suit. “Teigan,
tend to the birthday boy, please.”

“Of course,” was his simple yet cultured
response.

“The back yard will be the best place,” she was
saying as she led the way. “Although there are no neighbors nearby,
it will be safest to not worry about someone driving by and
accidentally seeing something they should not.”

“Or something that’ll drive them nuts.” Conner
murmured back, sounding bitter. It piqued my interest, but the time
for questions about his past would come later.

The back yard, which may as well have been considered
part of the forest, was heavily shielded by trees and greenery. The
leaves on everything not coniferous were a beautiful myriad of
colors that made it seem as if someone had set the woods ablaze. It
was gorgeous out here, a lot like back at my place, but even more
secluded and full of the quiet serenity of nature. We could have
committed a mass genocide out here and no one would have heard the
screams.

That thought was disconcerting as Elomina closed the
door behind all of us, trapping us outside in the wild. There was
something ominous and final about the way it shut, like it was
sealing our pasts away. Pasts we could never return to as we were
thrust into this new future where the world was full of more
monsters and weirdness than we ever could have imagined, even in
our worst nightmares.

"Let us begin, then." Elomina said, rubbing her hands
together against the slight autumn chill. "We shall have you begin
the process with Conner, as he has shifted more than two of the
other wolves in that room combined. You're much less likely to hurt
him, and we wouldn't want you to accidentally rearrange Jynxx's
insides for him when he has no way of knowing how to right
himself."

I somehow kept from having my jaw fall off at that
last statement. I stammered out a few incoherent words that didn't
make a lot of sense together. "Rearrange..? How in the..? What- Why
would I..?"

Conner rolled his eyes and looked to the older woman
in exasperation. "Oh, for fuck's sake... Did you have to scare her
with that, Mina?" He came over to me and took my hands in his and
it startled me from the very vivid mental image I suddenly had of
an inside out quivering blob of flesh that was once Jynxx Davison.
I physically jumped and he rubbed his very warm hands over mine.
Those amber eyes looked down into mine and I felt a little better
just from being near him.

"She's older than dirt, but she has absolutely zero
tact sometimes, Kaysh. I'll be fine. I can get shot, or hit by a
car, and I'll survive it and be perfectly healthy and whole once I
shift. So don't worry about anything. You're not going to hurt me;
she's just trying to inform you of what could possibly happen." He
gave me a wink and that sly little grin of his. "And besides, I
like a little pain now and then."

That snapped me out of it, and I was suddenly much
more aware of the crisp fall air around us as my cheeks filled with
so much heat that I half expected steam to be coming off my face. I
shook my finger at him. "Why do you DO that?!"

He laughed whole heartedly, nearly doubled over at my
reaction. Sobering up a moment later, he straightened and replied,
"Because it always snaps you out of whatever's running through your
brain, Kaysh. If it'll get you back to being yourself and not being
lost in your worries, I'll flirt with you as much as is
needed."

He was so different when surrounded by familiarity.
The nervous and twitchy guy with stage fright was gone, and there
was a sort of serenity that oozed from him here, so near to the
woods. He was definitely in his element here.

I made a wordless noise of frustration and crossed my
arms under my breasts. "Dick," I said simply, sticking my tongue
out at him. I looked to Elomina. "What do I need to do?"

My eyes were still glowing, so I assumed the
potential for easier access to whatever magick lived inside of me
was much more easily attained in this state than having to raise
the energy and then shove him into a puppy body. I'd also
discovered that I could feel it now, when my eyes were whited out
like a bird of prey.

She motioned for me to come closer with one hand,
Conner with the other. "The easiest way will be for you to begin by
using touch to make it happen. With practice, you can make it much
less - or more - painful, as well as being able to force a shift
without the aid of physical contact." I nodded, my brain starting
to go to that quiet place where I focused when I was studying my
ass off for a test. Everything important that she said would be
absorbed and committed to memory. And as far as I could tell, with
the samling only being in a week, every single damn thing she said
was of the utmost importance.

Without being bidden, Conner knelt before me, all
that silvery ash blond hair of his looking as soft as Jynxx's did.
Resisting the urge to touch his hair, I placed my hands on his bare
shoulders, still shocked by how hot his skin felt against mine. Not
only did I feel the chill in the air, but my skin was radiating a
cold all of its own now that I wasn't blushing like a thirteen year
old.

Both of us had a lot to learn and absorb, and I had
every intention of treating it like studying for a test. If doing
your damnedest could alter the course of your survival and future,
then failing and being lazy could only spell disaster.

I felt a slight electric jolt when my hands touched
to his skin. It was odd, almost like part of me that I wasn't aware
of was calling to him. I was drawn out of the implications of that
by Elomina speaking again, her voice much closer to me this time. I
nearly jumped when I saw that she was standing a few feet away.
Shaking it off, I listened intently. Her odd accent made it
immensely easier to focus.

"You said a friend of yours is a pagan, yes?" I
nodded. "Then perhaps you are familiar with the technique of
visualization. It will help you the most in this situation, until
you have become more accustomed to the process."

"You mean closing my eyes and focusing on the idea of
something happening? Actually seeing it in my mind's eye rather
than needing to see it manifest in front of me?"

"Yes," was her simple response, seeming glad that she
wouldn't have to teach me every single thing along the way. "But in
this case, what you see in your mind's eye shall physically
manifest. Close your eyes and do your best to see into Conner's
heart. You've already discovered that you can be connected to him
mentally. Reach deep inside of him and find the Beast that dwells
within him. You've already seen what his ulven form looks like, so
it should be fairly easy for you to do. If it helps, visualize a
forest where his wolf is waiting, content and curled up in the
shade of an evergreen. Perhaps a spruce, since they smell
absolutely amazing..."

I quirked a brow at her and she smirked, shaking her
head. "Close your eyes, girl! Focus! The sooner we can get this
show going, the better off we'll be. Practicing on Conner will mean
that the same must be done on Jynxx soon enough, since he hasn't
shifted fully yet. Granted, you could likely sit on his lap and
he'd wolf out, as they say."

"Mina!" Jynxx said in exasperation, embarrassed like
she was actually his mother.

She shrugged and I closed my eyes, smirking a bit
myself at his reaction. He did feel something for me. Good to know
I wasn't the only one with a major crush.

I cleared my thoughts and the forest clearing
Elomina'd been talking about swam into my mental vision. Shady,
soothing, full of peace and the wild all at the same time. I saw
myself walking, and for some reason I wasn't wholly me. I was
Skadhi, with long blonde hair flowing behind me. I was dressed in a
jacket of pelts and a flowing ice blue dress that swirled about me
just above my knees. Wraps of fur covered my shins and my forearms
and I was carrying a bow with a quiver full of arrows slung over my
shoulder. That was odd, because I've never hunted a day in my life,
much less with a long bow. I shrugged that part off and my glowing
white eyes searched the shadows for Ulven Conner.

I called to him in my mind, my voice not my own, but
something of a deeper timbre and full of chill that should have
turned the air before my lips frosty with the temperature of it. He
emerged finally, beautiful and nearly as tall as me, all of that
silver fur slightly thicker due to the wintery setting of the
forest glade I was seeing inside of him. He came to me, walking
slowly and hesitant at first, as if his wolf self didn't recognize
me while I was in the mien of Skadhi. Ulven Conner sat before me as
he had for real and sniffed my hand, dragging that long warm and
wet wolf tongue across my palm.

Elomina's voice came to me across what seemed to be
oceans of distance, asking me to run. "Run and he will chase you,
Kacea. For you are the Beloved of the Wolf, and he now has your
scent and the taste of you on his tongue. You are their Master, and
they cannot resist your call."

I did exactly as Elomina had asked me to. I ran.
Faster than I ever would have been able to do if I were fully
human. I dashed off into the forest, acting as though I was getting
lost so Conner would think he had the drop on me. The chase became
a game, but it was one that I had no intentions of losing. My
footfalls were silent on the hard and frosted ground, my breath
coming in pants that raised small clouds into the air before me.
But none of that mattered, because I felt free here. Unbridled, no
longer tied down by any earthly thoughts or urges other than the
desire to take in lungs full of cold air and allow the world to
fall away beneath the sound of my own heart beat thundering in my
ears.

I could hear Elomina's voice again, but it was far
enough away and so soft that I couldn't hear her anymore. I had
devised my own plans on how to bring Conner's wolf out of him, from
this place shared between our minds and into the real world. With a
glance over my shoulder to ensure that he couldn't see me, I leapt
upward and perched on a thick maple branch, knowing the sweet smell
of the tree would mask my own. I waited but a few short seconds
before he appeared beneath the tree, ears twitching as he listened
closely for any trace of me. Rather than waiting longer and missing
my chance, I dropped from the tree onto his back, grabbing fistfuls
of the hackles on his neck and holding them like the reins on a
horse. He rose up on his hind legs, barking and bucking as he
attempted to throw me off of him. I wouldn't be deterred, though.
He dropped back to all fours and ran --ears flat back against his
head-- at breakneck speed through the woods, branches snagging at
my hair and clothes.

My inner self that was very much Skadhi closed her
eyes and those dark ruby lips whispered, "Come to me, Conner. Be as
your maker intended you to be."

And just like that, I snapped back to reality as
Conner exploded in front of me, a mass of blood, flesh, bone, and
gobbets of other things I really didn't want to ponder on. Not just
in front of me, but all over me. I'd dragged the wolf screaming out
of him, and he now lay on the ground in ulven form, panting heavily
from the run I'd just taken him on. Aside from the fact that
everything smelled like something had died, he seemed alright. I
knelt by his side regardless. His canine maw was open and his
tongue lolled out with heaving breaths. I petted his face gently,
ruffling the fur behind his ears. The giant pony sized wolf rolled
one large amber eye open and he looked up at me with it before
letting it slide shut and whining softly.