by A. J. Rand
The High Priestess pulled back and looked at the women who were drawing close, all with approving nods and smiles. Judith didn’t seem so approving, but that’s okay. At least she and I agreed on one point. I was angry enough to pinch the underside of Pietra’s arm before I stepped fully out of her embrace.
My features moved into a look of overwhelmed humility. Inside, I was pissed off down to my toenails. She had left me with no options. If I backed out now, I would never be able to help this group to form a cohesive, united front against the smug man sitting on his canvas throne. And since he had linked to the energies of the coven, I would have to do the same.
I would’ve much preferred to have reached that conclusion on my own, and certainly wasn’t looking forward to having myself linked in my current drained and weakened state. Pietra must have figured it out and made certain I would take up the challenge to protect her girls whether I wanted to or not. When this was all over, the High Priestess and me were going to be having a little chat, too. For now, I played the part. What choice did I have?
“I am honored.” My guess was that only Pietra knew my response was choked by my anger and not by humility.
The women came around me with warm hugs. Even Jamie got up from her seat next to Mack to welcome me. Mack and Judith remained seated. I was hustled into the house to prepare myself for the initiation, while several women stayed outside with Pietra to light the central fire and finish the preliminary set up of the circle and the altar.
When I stepped back outside, I was clad in nothing but the white robe of an initiate. The two sisters, Jane and Joan took up positions, one in front of me and one behind. Judith stepped into place behind them. Mack and Pietra stood to either side of the altar, within the circle.
The remaining women filed in ahead of me, taking up positions around the inside edge. Judith closed the circle behind us, after we were all in. The ritual started with Mack and Pietra calling for the blessings of the Lord and the Lady upon the circle, and then stepped to the quarters of each direction to invoke the protection of the watchtowers. I never could understand why people took such time and painstaking effort to make a perfect circle, only to turn it into a square by invoking the watchers at the four directions. But hey, this was their thing, not mine.
After some initial time spent on invocations and prayers, Pietra called for the petitioner to come forward. I was lost in thought, and it didn’t even register that it was me she was referring to until Jane and Joan nudged me from both sides at the same time. I was up.
I took my time with small prayers to the four directions as I worked my way around the circle to the altar. It was expected of me. Just because it wasn’t my thing, that didn’t mean I was ignorant of what to do.
At the last, I stepped up to the altar, taking up a position between Mack and Pietra, the altar at my front, the fire at my back. Words were exchanged in ritual greeting and I stepped out of my robe, to bare myself as the symbolic newborn child to the rest of the coven.
Someone gasped behind me, but I didn’t recognize the voice. I wasn’t familiar enough with the group to single it out.
“Pietra, look––she’s a Gatekeeper.”
Gatekeeper? I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but I closed my eyes, knowing what they saw. I had a set of birthmarks on the back of my body. Few people had ever seen them. It was too late now to either keep them hidden or to feign ignorance, so I shifted my feet apart to give them the full show. There were seven, almost perfectly star-shaped, deep red blotches; one on the back of each shoulder, one at each ankle between calf and heel, and three that created a belt at my waist. When I shifted to stand with my feet spread apart at shoulder width, it was easy to see the constellation Orion laid out in perfection on my backside. It was why my father had given me the ridiculous surname Star.
Pietra stepped around me to look, as did Mack. When they came back to the altar again, her look was one of disturbed surprise. His was unreadable, but I thought I saw a flash of hunger. I stared straight ahead, acknowledging neither.
“A Gatekeeper––” the High Priestess whispered.
A memory sent a subtle chill washing over me, raising bumps on my skin. Ithane, the woman of my dream––hadn’t she been a Gatekeeper? My thoughts wandered back and forth between dream and ritual as Pietra and Mack stepped forward in unison to anoint my body. The ritual binding to the coven went on around me, but I was barely aware of it. My thoughts kept wandering to a place far away, trying to make all of the pieces fit together.
At some point, the ritual was complete and each woman stepped up to greet me with a hug followed by a kiss on each cheek. I responded properly to their ritual greetings, but my mind was elsewhere. Mack gave his greetings, and finally at the last, Pietra stepped forward to give hers.
When she turned me around to face the rest of the coven and announce my acceptance, the sky lit up in brightness. We all looked up. How could we not? Across the constellation of Orion, high above us, lights streaked their way from one end of the sky to the next. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first. Then I knew. Just like the dream, a shower of meteors lit up the sky, streaking their way to places unknown. What it meant, I didn’t know. But I had a bad feeling I was going to find out, whether I wanted to know or not.
Chapter 10
Tired does not even begin to describe how I was feeling by the time I reached my apartment door. No one could tell me much about the whole Orion-Gatekeeper thing, other than that there was some sort of obscure belief about Orion being the symbolic gatekeeper to not only the heavens, but to other worlds as well.
One of the girls, Andrea, had mentioned something about remembering an old story about Orion and the scorpion. But her version wasn’t the Greek myth about the scorpion chasing Orion. It was actually the other way around, where the warrior chased the monster to keep him from settling in the heavens.
I made a mental note to ask Morpheus about it. He was almost as old as dirt. I figured he might remember something. If nothing else, maybe he could ask around for me. After all, he traveled in different circles than I did.
I entered my place as quietly as I could manage. The living room light was on. Tossing my pack on the couch without ceremony, I crossed to the bedroom. A low lamp was lit there as well.
Chaz was asleep, lying curled up on the small love seat that sat in the far corner of the room. It was my reading nook. I fell asleep there as often as I did in my bed, usually holding some obscure text that would later fall to the floor to wake me. Ke was settled in under the covers of the bed. Chaz had taken away the shower curtain and cleaned up the rest of the room while I was gone. Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure he had taken care of the hallway, too. It just hadn’t registered at the time.
With caution, I walked over to stand at the side of the bed. My mind drifted to the dreamscape Ke had pulled me into. I don’t think it had been intentional. He had tried to warn me. I also don’t believe in coincidences. There were far too many similar pieces to this puzzle that obviously fit together. But how? For the first time, I couldn’t see the larger picture and it disturbed me. Especially since I had that gut feeling that when they all fell into place, my face would be smack dab in the middle.
But what did it all mean? I stared down at the man on the bed as though trying to will the answers from him. I wouldn’t get any, but it gave me something to occupy my mind.
His head was turned into the pillow, so only half of his face showed. I studied him for a time while my thoughts ran circles around today’s events. It was a rounder face, but with firm lines that defined his cheek and jaw. The nose was a little wide, but straight. The lips were full, but it didn’t look like a mouth that smiled much. I don’t know where that thought came from, but it felt right. Long, dark lashes brushed his cheeks in sleep. I already knew his eyes were like golden chocolate.
His hair looked to be all one length and was a deep brown, almost black, with auburn highlights that gave a glint of red in the wa
rm light of the bedroom. It was also streaked with gray in places throughout the length that went past his waist. There was still some dried and matted blood in the strands, but there could be no help for that until he could get up and into the shower.
All in all, he was a good-looking guy. I’m sure that would be even more improved when he was cleaned up. The irony of him being there wasn’t lost on me. The only good-looking guy I’ve had lying near-naked in my bed in a couple of years, and it’s only because he’s too injured to be elsewhere.
“You’re back.” Chaz’s soft voice cut through my thoughts.
“Yeah, here I am.”
It saved me the trouble of choosing between letting him sleep or waking him up to keep my promise to talk when I got back. I gave sleeping beauty a last glance and walked over to the kid. He sat up, still a little groggy, to make room for me to sit next to him.
“So when were you going to mention the initiation that Pietra had planned?”
There’s nothing like a splash of cold water in the face to shock you into being awake. I could tell that he had forgotten about it.
“Shit, Yesh. I’m so sorry––”
“Save it. I was pretty pissed at first, but then I realized we had a few other things to deal with by the time you got back.” I tipped my head toward Ke. “I just don’t like being blind-sided.”
“Man, I didn’t mean for that to happen.” He was mortified into silence for about the space of a heartbeat. “How’d it go?”
I filled him in on the events that had taken place at the coven meeting.
“I knew about the marks,” he was looking at me strangely. “I mean, I’ve caught glimpses of them here and there over the time that I’ve worked with you. But I’ve never seen them all together, so I guess it never dawned on me that they were part of a bigger picture.”
He was eyeing my back, trying to visualize the marks through my leather.
“Maybe someday, kid. But I’m not baring myself for anyone again tonight.” I clapped a hand on his knee and sank back into the plush softness of the love seat.
“So––?”
I frowned. “So what?”
Chaz looked at me. Topic jumping. The kid was good for that. He wanted to know about the dream deal, so I told him. I didn’t leave anything out. I needed an extra brain wrapped around the details. Maybe he would see something I was missing. By the time I was finished, he was leaning back into the sofa with me. He had a dazed look on his face.
“So what does it all mean?”
He wasn’t so much asking me, as he was sort of letting the words out to hang in the air. I knew how he felt. That was pretty much where I was at, too.
“I don’t know, kid. This has me stumped. Somehow, it’s all connected, but I can’t make the pieces fit.”
“Do you think maybe it’s a past life thing?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know––past life, reincarnation––”
I started to laugh. “I was an angel in a past life? I don’t think the whole angel thing goes hand in hand with theories of reincarnation.”
Chaz shook his head. “Not nowadays. But there’s the whole school of thought that the theory of reincarnation was removed from biblical texts by Constantine back in 313 A.D.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at him. “Does Father David know where you’re devoting your study time these days?” He blushed and I shook my head. “There’s also plenty of supposed proof that doesn’t mesh with that timeline, Chaz. But let’s just assume for a minute that you’re correct and reincarnation is for real. Angels don’t have physical forms to begin with, so how can they die and become reincarnated? It doesn’t make sense.”
“It should.” The voice came from the bed, surprising us both.
I jumped up and Chaz sat forward. Ke was awake. He labored to roll over, but only managed to lift himself partially to his side.
“You’re awake.”
“Yes.”
“How do you feel?”
He moved a little and winced. “Like death warmed over.”
“Well, you don’t look much better.”
He managed a grin. “Thanks.”
Okay, so the guy did know how to smile.
“You want to clue me into what’s going on?”
“Do I want to? No.” He shook his head. “I don’t think that you’re ready to hear what I have to say. Is there any other option? No, again, or else I wouldn’t be here.”
That sounded pretty arrogant in my book.
“Who are you to say what I am and am not ready to hear?”
Ke closed his eyes. He was still dealing with the combined strain and pain of whatever his body was doing to him. “I’m not ready to deal with it either, Ithane.”
I frowned. He was delirious. “My name is Yeshua.”
Ke opened his eyes and looked at me. I was partially right. There was a cloud of pain over his awareness. But there was also a light of clarity. My frown deepened.
“You––” he started and then shook his head. “Yeshua.”
I could see him struggle for focus. My whole body was guarded, inside and out. He wasn’t going to hold onto consciousness for long. That was apparent. Going over and shaking the answers out of him wasn’t an option at this point, so I waited for him to work through it on his own. My expression was closed and calm, but I was wound tight with a desire for answers.
“Ithane. That was the woman from the dream.” I tried prompting him back to clarity.
“No.”
“Her name wasn’t Ithane?”
He looked surprised and then frowned, shaking his head. “No. It wasn’t a dream.”
“Then what––”
“It was a vision, an imprint of a past life on your subconscious.”
I may have been wound tight, but this guy wasn’t wrapped tight enough. Shrugging my shoulders, I decided to humor him.
“So I was an angel in a past life.” My voice was flat and devoid of emotion.
“Not just an angel,” Ke was trying to focus. His clarity was slipping and I could see the struggle to pull his thoughts together. “A Guardian. Ithane watched over the Thirteenth Gate.”
“A Gatekeeper?” Chaz was almost bouncing in his seat with excitement.
Great. I frowned, shaking my head. “No. Angels aren’t physical. They don’t have bodies. You were in the dream. You had wings. You’re not looking all that angelic to me right now.”
Ke didn’t answer. His body slumped in the bed, rolling back to his original, unconscious position. My eyes went to his back. There was a slight reddening at the shoulders, where it looked as though the blood was starting to come to the surface again.
My frown was back. That’s where the strips of blood were showing up. It was the exact place where wings would have been attached to his back if he had them. Maybe that’s what was going on. Psychosomatic production of physical trauma brought on by an internally fractured psyche? That had to be it. I wasn’t buying the other answer he was trying to sell. There were too many holes.
“Yesh––”
“I see it, kid.” I took off my jacket and tossed it to the empty spot next to him. “I knew it wouldn’t hold, but I thought it would’ve lasted longer than this.”
“What if he’s right?”
I didn’t even bother to look at him. “He’s not.”
“But what if he is?”
This time I did look at him as I settled myself in to sit next to Ke on the bed. “He isn’t, Chaz. Hey, it’s a cool theory. This guy just has his reality and theologies all mixed up in a nutball shake. He’s over the edge of tolerance on the pain scale and it’s confusing his brain.”
“If you say so––”
“I do.” My response was firm. I waited a minute, dreading to call the energy right now. My levels were tapped and I wasn’t sure how much I had left to pull on. “Chaz–”
“Yeah?”
“Keep a good eye on me, will you?” I hated admitting the wea
kness, but I wasn’t going to be totally stupid about it. “If I start to drop, put me to bed, okay? I’m not sure how long I’ll last.”
“Be careful, Yesh. Don’t push past your reserves.”
“I’m already past them.” My smile was rueful. “But we all do what we have to do.”
“I’ll watch over you. But if you look like you’re fading, I’m pulling you out.”
“Fair enough.” I nodded and called the energy. The dream fragment of Ithane leaped into my mind. This time, I was going to try a different approach.
Chapter 11
It’s one thing to wake up groggy and disoriented. It’s a whole different thing to wake up groggy, disoriented, and with hands roaming all over your body. I gave into the sensation of warmth for a brief moment, wrapped in a cocoon of unawareness. Then the hand slid lower, moving to a place at the top of my inner thigh. I went to brush it away, but found I couldn’t move my arms. They were pinned above my head.
Awareness comes back to you quick enough when it starts to sink in that things maybe aren’t how they should be. There was no maybe about it. This was all wrong.
I struggled against the entrapment of my wrists. My eyes flew open at a sharp, burning sensation at the top of my right breast and the pain of fingers digging into my upper thigh. Cold dark eyes stared into mine, filled with determination. It took me a dazed second to figure out that those eyes belonged to Mack Black Wolf.
Shit. I had forgotten to ward my dreams. So much of my energy and attention had been focused on Ke that I had lost myself in the shuffle. As drained as I was of energy, this was not the time for me to be unprotected. It was too late now. All I could do was to try and fight him off and send him packing from my dreamscape. Or did I need to leave his?
