by Hadena James
“Maybe he’s old,” Hannah giggled.
“If he’s an Elder, he probably is old,” I told Hannah but looked very pointedly at Anubis.
“Maybe he is actually a she,” Anubis joined the discussion.
“Maybe we should figure who it is and bring them together,” I said.
“Don’t meddle in the affairs of your family. Set-ups are always a disaster,” Fenrir looked at me, “and since you have about as much dating experience as I have being a woman, you most certainly should not get involved.”
“Thanks,” I gave him the finger.
“Just pointing out the obvious.”
“At this time, there may be more important things than finding Olivia a date,” Ba’al stood from the couch and stretched. “Does it bother anyone that we have two more pregnant Elders in this house and one just gave birth to a child that had problems developing a soul?”
“It does me,” Sonnellion walked into the room.
“How do you do that?” I asked him.
“What?”
“Appear when it seems to be important and disappear when it isn’t.”
“Well, I’ve been dead for God only knows how long,” Sonnellion shrugged, “I used to do it when I was dead. I just haven’t gotten out of the habit now that I’m alive.”
“It would help your cause if you were present more,” Eli told him.
“I don’t know how. Do you realize that for the first week I wasn’t even sure how to make this body move correctly? Too long being ethereal, I suppose. There are still habits I’m breaking after being dead. Like the need to shower. The dead don’t shower. The living should shower at least every couple of days. It’s still an odd experience to shower and these showers are more complicated than just jumping in a pond like we did when I was alive. These things have knobs and switches and different settings.”
“Huh,” I smiled finally, “I don’t think any of us have ever considered what it was like to be dead and then suddenly, not be dead.”
“It’s disconcerting,” Sonnellion agreed.
“But we have more important things to discuss,” Ba’al said.
“Agreed,” Sonnellion replied, “I don’t like the idea of it taking an hour for a soul to arrive in a child when it should start the moment they are born.”
“Yes, but you all said that it happens,” I told them.
“It does,” Ba’al answered.
“It does happen,” Sonnellion seemed to take a moment to compose his thoughts, “but having been on the other side for so long, I have seen it happen and I understand why it happens. It shouldn’t have happened with Rachel’s child.”
“Why does it happen?” Several people asked in unison.
“Because a mixed breed child has to adjust to their magic,” Sonnellion answered.
“Confused,” I pointed out.
“A child, such as yourself or Alex, or any of the others that don’t form souls immediately upon birth, are struggling to gain magic. Because the magic is so different for hybrids than it is for pure breed Elders, it takes a moment. With Alex for example, not only was there a struggle for what sort of transformation he would have as a Lycan, but also how much of his Gargoyle genes would be expressed. If you notice, there are certain restrictions to breeding. How many Gargoyle/Lycan pairings have there been? One. Alex’s ancestors. Why? Because they are both shape-shifting breeds. Fey/Djinn pairings are just as rare because the magic is destructive. Demons have never had an Elemental coupling. Angels have never had a mating with Vampires. Some magic just will not mix in a positive manner. I have watched, from the ethereal as each of my nieces and nephews were born and one thing about all of them is that the pairings haven’t been magically exclusive. Rachel and Thomas should not have been a problem. Djinn powers and Demon powers are complimentary, not exclusionary. That means Trent should not have had a problem developing a soul. So why did he?”
“Vampirism,” I said, again feeling that nugget of guilt.
“You are not a Vampire. I admit it is a good theory, but you can’t feed off souls. You can only see them. Being around Anubis while still in the womb wouldn’t have impacted the development of the soul after he was born.”
“What about if it was Rachel storing up the magic? She has been around Ani almost as much as me.”
“Again, not a Vampire. She was unable to see whether her child had a soul or not,” Sonnellion pointed out.
“Could it have been me?” Nick finally looked at our uncle.
“I considered that, but you weren’t in the room at his birth,” Sonnellion assured him, “so it seems unlikely.”
“What do we do if it happens again?” Hannah asked timidly.
“I don’t know. I don’t know why it would happen again. Or why it would happen with your child or Elise’s child. I just know we have a rash of pregnant Elders and this first one is concerning.”
“While you were dead,” Daniel began, “you watched souls enter children all the time?”
“Yes, it was one of the few things I could do without being summoned. I didn’t need to be corporeal for it.”
“Why?” Daniel continued.
“Why did I do it or why could I do it?”
“Why did you do it?”
“I don’t know, I felt compelled. Probably the same innate urge your father has. I love babies. I think all the brothers do. I even loved the other breeds when they were babies; just not so much as they got older. Then I sort of lost it and well, then I was dead. Now I’m alive again and I still want to stand around and watch souls enter babies and make faces at them.”
“Could they see you?” I asked.
“Yes, I think they could, at least for those first few moments.”
“On the ones that didn’t develop souls, aside from being half-breeds, was there anything particularly different about them?” Anubis asked.
“Not really. But all of them start out the same way. The first few seconds there is nothing, just life. Then there is the formation of the soul above the body and it slips into them. For the ones that never developed a soul, there was just this nothingness. I could feel it. I always felt bad for the ones that didn’t develop a soul. I don’t think they can enjoy even the few hours they have on Earth without it.”
“So you stood and watched and yearned to be alive?” I asked suspiciously.
“No, I never wished to be alive,” Sonnellion corrected, “I was quite happy being dead. Not that I’m not enjoying this second attempt at it, I am. But I was never bitter about being dead. I knew I had brought it upon myself and that it was my fate.”
“And now?” Daniel asked.
“Now, I’m not sure what my fate is. I’m just happy to be alive. Happy to be with all of you.”
“Well, if you are concerned about it,” I shrugged, “I guess we should all be concerned about it. If it happens again, we’ll investigate.”
“How many Elders are pregnant?” Sonnellion asked.
“I don’t know, two for sure,” I said.
“Anubis? Gabriel? Fenrir? Ba’al?”
“Several,” Anubis sighed, “we thought it was a fluke. It seems everyone is pregnant or getting there.”
“Even my mate is pregnant,” Fenrir admitted, “not due for a couple more months though.”
“I didn’t know Gina was pregnant,” I looked at him.
“I didn’t either until a week ago. Now I’m trying to figure out what to do about it. I had a reprieve because of the war, I guess it’s over.”
“Define several,” Sonnellion interrupted, his eyes sliding to Anubis.
“At least a dozen Vampires,” Anubis answered.
“About the same amount of Angels,” Gabriel confirmed.
“We have roughly a dozen as well,” Ba’al answered.
“With Gina, I’d say we have a dozen. Alex’s mate is also pregnant.”
“That seems bad,” I looked around the room.
“Most of them were at your Maturing party and most of them got pregnant that
night, meaning that we are going to have a rash of births over the next few weeks.”
“Sorry,” Samuel blushed.
“Don’t be, it’s the biggest growth spurt Elders have had in centuries,” Anubis smiled at him, “we all thought it was a good thing, now maybe not so much.”
“We will need to watch all of them closely,” Sonnellion sat down, his face an unreadable mask.
“What are you thinking, Uncle?” I asked him.
“I’m thinking that Samuel may have helped them all get pregnant, but someone else is trying to find a way to resurrect souls into the newly born.”
“Wish I hadn’t asked.”
Chapter Five
“Is it possible to resurrect an old soul into a new body?” Nick asked. We had been silently watching them hunt for a while. Something had changed in the room though. Their aim wasn’t as good, they missed more, took more shots to bring down an animal.
“Yes,” I told him, feeling the weight of the world. “But it has to be done by a Witch.”
“Which would explain targeting Rachel,” Eli said, “she’s head Witch now.”
“I suddenly feel very guilty for that,” I admitted.
“Not your fault, we all agree that she is perfect for it. Besides, we couldn’t have predicted this,” Eli reassured me.
“I thought we got all of them.”
“Guess not,” Eli shrugged.
“There are always more than you find,” Daniel told me.
“It would be impossible to round them all up; after all, there is still a wild card in play,” Sonnellion said very pointedly.
“I’m not killing my sister,” I told him.
“I don’t expect you to, but as long as she lives, there will always be more. Especially if she can invade dreams. Dreams can be very persuasive. Jasmine even more so.”
“I have this sinking feeling that I am going to spend a long part of the next century battling Witches that are loyal to my psycho sister.”
“That is a distinct possibility, but one battle at a time. Right now, the battle would not be with her, but with whoever is trying to resurrect the dead,” Anubis told me.
“Wouldn’t we notice if there was a spell?” Nick asked.
“Theoretically, yes,” I answered. “In reality, who knows? We don’t know when the spell is being cast or what spell is being cast or if there even is a spell being cast. Perhaps, like Sonnellion, there are others hanging around watching babies being born. But unlike Sonnellion they are trying to invade them before the infant’s soul takes hold.”
“I’m not sure the dead can do that,” Sonnellion said.
“Six months ago, I would have said you couldn’t resurrect the dead,” I looked at him.
“You have me there; six months ago I would have bet the double soul spell was the only way to resurrect the dead. Six months later, I’m still unsure exactly what happened with me. I just know that Magnus brought my body from the box and Nick somehow united it with my soul and here I am.”
“You are definitely here,” I agreed.
“So I keep telling myself and every night I go to bed expecting to wake up dead in the morning,” Sonnellion got a weird look.
“Do the dead wake?”
“The body doesn’t, but the soul does,” he answered. “Once the body is gone, the soul just suddenly realizes it is still around, but it doesn’t have a vessel to hold it.”
“A glimpse of the afterlife,” I said cheerily.
“Not really. I never entered the afterlife. Most souls go somewhere. I just sort of hung around. There weren’t many of us. A few Elders here and there that hang around, not sure why. Not allowed to enter heaven or hell maybe? I don’t know. I just know that over the course of my history of being dead, there were maybe two dozen or three dozen souls like myself.”
“No soul was like yours,” I corrected.
“You say that, but it isn’t exactly true. There are other souls like me, disincorporated, but still here. I couldn’t go anywhere but the ethereal plains, I was stuck wondering around there. I could show up in dreams and things, but...” he shrugged. “And the ethereal isn’t exactly what we think either. I existed here, but not in your realm. I could still see everything happening, but I couldn’t be seen and I couldn’t interact.”
“What of the other souls?” I frowned at him.
“Like me, I guess they were denied entry into either heaven or hell. They just hung around. They couldn’t talk to me, I couldn’t talk to them. I’m not sure they can talk to the living like I could.”
“Ok, so are these like the souls in my furniture?”
“No, not in the least. Those souls were given options and chose not to go. They spend eternity in a sort of limbo. Much different than where I was. And they all seem to be Witches. The souls like me were all Elder souls. When I was among them, I thought it was my punishment for being so wicked. Too wicked even for hell to accept me. Now, I am not so sure. Now, I am left to wonder why our souls existed in that form of time and space. If we can be resurrected, like I was, then it seems there is a flaw to my logic of it being punishment.”
“So the dead souls, like you, might be hanging around looking at the sudden influx of births as their key back to our world and since you’ve already come through the doorway...”
“That’s my fear,” Sonnellion agreed.
“Let’s go with a theoretical, ‘yes, they can do that’. How do we prevent it?” I asked.
“I’d go with Vampires,” he looked over at Anubis.
“Why?” I pressed.
“Because Vampires can feed off souls. I think they would be able to tell the difference between a new soul and a resurrected soul. Since the resurrected soul wouldn’t have a form, it would be more susceptible to being fed off of, meaning, a Vampire might be able to weaken an old soul enough to keep it from being resurrected.”
“That sounds like a lot of ‘what if’,” I tried to stop frowning.
“I’m not liking it,” Anubis offered.
“I don’t expect you to like it; I would be horrified if you did. We know how Vampires react to infants, but if it keeps evil from being resurrected, it might not be a bad thing,” Sonnellion answered.
“Only the most restrained Vampires would be able to do it. Could another being that sees souls be able to help, someone like Brenna?” Anubis asked.
“Brenna can see souls, I’m not sure she can see the difference between an old soul and a new soul. And if it was an old soul, what could she do about it?” Sonnellion countered.
“We have very few Vampires with the self control to even attempt it. Myself, Jonathan, Naga, Yuri, and Achilles, I can’t think of any others right off the top of my head. And myself and Naga would be the most questionable.”
“That would seem like an acceptable number. I don’t know why you would question your own self-control though. I have seen you at your best and worst, remember, I was there when Brenna was born,” Sonnellion smiled at him.
“What if we can’t tell the difference?” Anubis pressed.
“Then we are all majorly screwed and I’m open to suggestions,” Sonnellion answered.
Chapter Six
With that thought in my mind, I went to raid my kitchen. I found a box of donuts and opened it. There was this feeling in my stomach that things were about to get crazy. Donuts seemed like a good idea.
“Holy shit!” Nick exclaimed from the living room.
“Watch your mouth,” Eli scolded him loudly in place of my parents.
“Come look at this!” Nick was still shouting.
“What?” I took my box of donuts into the living room.
They had turned off the video games. The national news was on. The city of Los Angeles appeared to be under attack. The news showed what I could only describe as bird-women dive bombing the city.
My Overlords seemed to be just as stunned. Two of them sat with their mouths open, watching the TV. The other two seemed to be trying to make noise and failin
g.
“I’m going to ask, what are those?” I took a bite of a donut.
“Sirens,” Anubis finally found his voice.
“Oh, I thought harpies were the bird-women,” I watched as one of the sirens snatched a Human up and carried them to the top of a building. The camera crew zoomed in just in time to catch the siren begin to devour the Human. I looked away.
“That is going to be a problem,” Eli said, breaking the building silence.
“Yes, I believe it is,” Anubis answered.
“Hey, isn’t that Alex?” Daniel pointed at the TV.
Sure enough, Alex was climbing up the building walls. Marcus flew across the camera. A Fey was following at his heels.
“Uh,” Fenrir looked at Ba’al.
“I guess their team was called up,” Ba’al shrugged.
“Should we go help them?” I asked.
“No, I’m sure they...” Anubis paused as Alex ripped the head off of a siren on national TV, “is this live?”
“Says it is,” Nick pointed at the bottom of the screen.
“Sirens, soulless infants, disincorporated souls, anyone else have a bad feeling?” I asked.
“I do,” Sonnellion spoke up.
“Glad it’s not just me.”
“No, it is not just you,” Sonnellion looked over at me.
“I think they have it handled,” Fenrir said.
We all turned back to the TV. Marcus had grabbed a siren in the sky and was shredding her.
I frowned at the TV.
“What?” Anubis asked.
“I thought the book said siren song was deadly to males.”
“It is, that is why they have earplugs in,” Anubis answered.
“Oh, good plan. Do earplugs work?”
“They are made from Dragon’s Wings which makes them sound-proof. Yes they work,” Anubis said this like I should know it. Since I had never had a close encounter with a siren or siren song, this seemed like an extreme expectation.
“Sonnel, what are your thoughts on the matter?” Anubis asked.
“I think that Brenna’s gut is right. Something bad is happening. I don’t know what, but something bad. And I think it has to do with resurrecting souls.”
