Chapter 9
As they entered Nicky’s house, Theo looked at Morgan and the way she was waiting for them, his heart protested at the warm feelings in the house, his wolf howled at the injustice. And there in the midst of it all was a crib, inside he could hear Charlie giggling, he had to be the happiest baby he had ever met, he rarely cried.
Leaning over the crib was the warrior woman known as War. If you had to guess which species descended from the gods and goddesses, War had to have birthed the Amazons, she was tall for a female, hell she towered most men, standing she was close to seven foot. Her body was as usual clad in leather shorts, a leather tank, with her spear sheathed across her back; her fiery red curly hair was longer, cascading down her back. She looked happy, making noises and faces at Charlie, who was obviously comfortable around her by the way he was responding. Exactly how much time did she spend with him?
"So you have arrived" he looked around, Ben and Nicky had not joined them, then he saw why, they were outside the room and he could see a bubble at the door preventing them from coming in the room,
"what are you doing?"
She stood and turned to him, a soft smile on her face "trying to get some privacy, just give me a minute", she lowered the bubble and a furious Nicky stormed in,
what on earth are you doing, blocking the door so I can't get to my son. While I don’t mind you being here, don’t think I won't kick your ass out of my house."
"I wanted to talk to the wolf in private, if Charlie needed anything I would tell you. By your face anyone would think you didn’t trust me."
Theo could see the red glow around her brighten, this might not be good, but then Morgan came to the rescue
"he didn’t mean that, you’ve seen what Nicky is like, he worries so much and just wants to be able to get to Charlie if he needs us. You know how he is." Although War’s name was Athena everyone called her War, everyone but Morgan who had stuck to Athena
"Okay I accept that, I have to say Nicky if it wasn’t for Morgan and Charlie I would definitely send a band of vigilantes after you, you vex me so, but no worry I can do this another way"
she pulled her spear out and then Theo found himself alone and standing on some sort of soft white blanket, the whiteness went on forever,
"Where are we?" Theo wasn’t scared, she might be War but for some reason he felt comfortable around her, he wasn’t sure why, he had never spent time alone with her. He moved his feet to see what the substance was; it was like a mist but solid.
"Somewhere private. I have to say Silver Pack is a nice place to be, they look out for each other in times of need, I like that."
"Ben's a good leader."
‘While I agree it isn't just that you know, the people in the pack genuinely love and respect each other, do you know how rare that is?"
Theo shrugged "I suppose we take it for granted. Um I have to say I am not really sure what is happening here, in fact I don t really know where here is?"
He was still looking around but there was nothing and then there was, two small leather armchairs materialised "please sit down Theo, where do you think you are?"
He sat cautiously not sure he trusted chairs that just appeared. He was surprised they were also solid "um in the sky?"
"You always were a bright boy" Theo found himself smiling at her complement then suddenly he frowned,
"What do you mean boy?"
Theo watched as War leaned back, the chairs were mere feet from each other, she closed her eyes,
"Do you know how I happened upon Silver Pack?"
"When we had those problems with Morgan?"
"That is what most of you assume, it was several hundred years ago, Destiny was giving lessons in 'the order of things,' trying to show Goddesses in training the need to protect the order of things. She brought us to Silver's where Ben's grandfather was still Alpha. Even then it was destined that Ben would eventually become Alpha and meet Lucky."
Theo smiled, old Ted had been a good Alpha, he stepped down when Theo was still a toddler, but he had only passed over about 40 years ago.
"Anyway, as I watched these men, women and wolves, I was struck by their closeness, even more so when I watched the pups running around, all but one of them, I have watched you since then."
"Since when exactly?"
He watched her sigh, and then her face turned hard, her tone was low and soft but there was a hard edge to it.
"Since I watched a young man stand and face a woman that had secretly tormented him and who terrified him to the point where he was scared to play with the other children in case he angered her. Initially I watched to see what would stop this one child from acting like the others, and then I saw him with her and knew." Theo heard his breath catch, but he didn’t speak, he didn’t know what to say.
"It took me a while to understand but what I saw was this tiny boy, terrified of the person in front of him, his whole body embraced the anger inside, even then he knew he could not beat her, so he stood there to face the beating he knew he could not stop. But inside that boy I saw the warrior. So when she beat him and left him lying on the ground I tried to comfort the boy, I sang to him, I was still young, well young for a goddess only about 8 thousand years old, I didn’t have enough power then to stop what was to come and for that I am eternally sorry." She was watching him, he knew she was waiting for a response but his mind had reversed back to that little boy.
Theo was cold inside and out, then hot as the memories flooded him "I was 6 years old when I first heard it. I had woken her when I had a nightmare; afterwards I remembered hearing a voice singing to me, the voice of an angel, it made the pain feel less. Do you know that when I finally recovered I thought I had imagined that voice?" he was leaning forward in his chair as she opened her eyes, tears shimmering.
"I birth destruction, I wanted to destroy her then and later I nearly did. I was there with you from then on, whenever I wasn’t sending destruction I was with you, I was there a year later. On the day that you broke that precious vase, I knew what she was going to do; I saw her reach for the gasoline. Do you know that you and your fate nearly caused anarchy in the heavens; I fought with Destiny to stop her. It was only seeing a glimpse of your future with her continued abuse and your future with this one cruel and horrendous act that stopped me spreading a war in the heavens. You may not believe it but evenwithout that last act she would have destroyed you."
"You were with me when she poured it over me weren’t you? I remember the smell, the heat but in a way I knew even then it should have hurt more than it did, even the pain afterwards I knew it should have been worse, not that it didn’t hurt a bitch. Some days I prayed for death, but all I heard was the voice of my angel singing to me, making me feel better." He wasn’t sure how to take this, she had been there with him, this goddess.
She sat next to him with a sigh, "I tried to protect you, I was determined her hatred would not destroy you, I tried to stop it spreading, you were laid in bed, so strong and brave, you didn’t cry, do you remember that, because I do? I watched her light the match, she intended for the whole bed to go up, taking you with it; I wasn’t going to let her take away this beautiful and innocent life. I couldn’t stop it scarring your beautiful face but I could lessen the pain and stop it spreading. You were such a handsome boy but you turned into a stunning warrior. I would look at you as a boy and see those big brown eyes, watching the world in wonder. Those weeks when you battled the pain, I stayed with you, trying to take away some of it, it was all I could do."
Theo could feel the tears running down his face; no one would understand what that meant to him. He had wanted his life to end, prayed for it, but he had known even then that he was being comforted he just didn’t understand it until now, "thank you."
"Can I ask you something that has always bothered me?" he nodded.
"Why did you suffer in silence? When I was watching, I waited for you to tell the Alpha, your friends, anyone but you didn’t, I don’t understand why not?
At first I didn’t think you trusted them to protect you, but then afterwards, the Alpha Leyland was so angry, his wife Sylvia was so caring and tender, Ben was only young but watching him sit with you, read to you day in day out, it confirmed Destiny's vision, even then, he was the next Alpha and would be a good one, but why not tell them?"
Theo had asked himself this question many times "it’s probably the one question I couldn’t understand until I was an adult, but it is simple really, she was my mother, the only one I had, it didn’t matter what she did because in that little boys head it was my fault, if only I hadn’t broken the cup she wouldn’t have broken my arm, if I hadn’t dropped that plate she wouldn’t have blackened my eye. It didn’t matter what she did, I still loved her and wanted her to love me back."
He watched the tears fall "I am sorry, I tried to protect you she didn’t deserve your love. I came to you every day while you were in hospital, I watched you grow and was so proud of you, every day you became stronger. You fascinated me; I wanted to make sure life was better for you after that. I stayed with you as you grew, I know I shouldn’t have but she had hurt you so much. I watched you on special occasions, your first transformation to wolf, now that was impressive, you towered over the others."
Theo laughed "I still do."
War continued as if she flicked through her memories "your graduation, although I have to say that was a close one, if I hadn’t had been so persuasive you would have missed it, the first time…"
He laughed again "wait a minute; you stopped me being kicked out of school didn’t you?" His heart swelled just knowing that someone so strong and powerful had looked out for him, cared that much.
She looked indignant "of course I did, that fool deserved the ass kicking you gave him, he was bullying the younger children. Anyhow that stupid principle didn’t realise how important it was for you to graduate."
"Why?"
Her voice was quieter "because I was so excited for you, you had worked so hard to prove her wrong, to show her you could achieve despite the pain she put you through. I wanted to watch you get up there and receive that damn certificate" a few tears fell.
"What about when I was arrested for drunken behaviour?" his curiosity was piqued.
"It’s not your fault that stupid bimbo kept plying you with drinks."
"What about the time when me and Ben nearly shifted in the middle of a police investigation, before the humans knew about us?"
"Your senses were dulled by alcohol, that was stupid but not your fault."
"I was young and when the anger consumed me, I would wake, remember the night before in shame and I would be angry at myself, I knew I had hurt people but they never seemed so badly injured the next day."
"That was bloody exhausting, partially healing someone is harder than completely healing someone, I was so glad when you grew out of that phase."
He knew he was smiling, he couldn't help it, "my patterns, they were from you weren’t they?" he looked down at the tattoos on his arm.
"I could feel how much it pained you, looking at the scars, it took me a while to think of a solution and then i decided to make the most of them, they all have meaning (pointing to the swirl around his eye), this protects you from those looking to harm you, this one (the flames licking down his neck) protects you from fire, it will still hurt but won’t kill you, the one here (a sun over his heart) protects your heart until your destiny find’s you."
"Amazing, I never knew" he was in awe of this amazing and giving Goddess.
"You were not meant to."
"Shit I wished you had stopped Leyland from finding out all of the things we tried to hide from him."
She laughed now "I am not stupid, it isn’t good to get away with too much, so when you were being really idiotic, I discreetly planted suggestions in his mind, so that he could in fact catch you out."
Theo stood and she looked panicked "I only tried to help…" he bent and kissed her cheek.
"What was that for?"
"I always wanted a mother to love and protect me, to tell me off, to steer me in the right direction. I had you, I just didn’t know I had you, but now I do."
"You are not angry."
"Not angry, I do wish I had known you were there though? Does this mean you disappear?"
Surprisingly he didn’t want that, this strong scary as hell woman had been in the background of his life all of these years, he just didn’t know to appreciate it, now he did, he didn’t want to lose it.
"Do you want me to?”
"No, right now I need a friend."
"I take it this is about Imogen?"
"I am sure you know that Imogen and I, well I don’t really know what’s going on but I know it going to hurt me like hell" as he let out a sigh the pain came back, the pain of letting her go, his wolf inside growled in protest.
"Do you know the reason I know so much about Silver is because of you, but I really like the pack and more importantly I like Imogen. I can’t tell you the future, because Destiny gets a little pissed at that, but know this, if it is meant to be, it will happen. I have seen her grow and make you more human, less angry; I have also watched you laugh more in the last 5 years than over the last 300 years. I see your pain now, but know this, if anyone including Destiny tries to take her from you, you will see a war like never before."
Theo took her hand "please don’t, don’t make others suffer as me and Imogen have, Morgan is a wise woman you should listen to her more, fighting is not always the answer" as he watched her laugh, he smiled, it was a wonderful sound that filled the air around them.
"I like her and Nicky but do not tell him that, he would be incorrigible and I do love to tease him. Anyway back to you and Imogen, I like her and will do what I can to protect her, but she needs to find her own path before she can join you on yours, gods I sound like Destiny."
Theo laughed but then sobered, "I am not sure I can let her go long enough to find her path, it hurts already" looking around at this vast empty space was just plain bizarre.
"Do you actually live here like this?"
"Of course I don’t, soon I will show you but first I have a proposition for you. You need something to keep you busy and I need your help but it will be a journey that will take you into your own private hell. I will be there for you and I truly believe it is something you need to do. But if you take this journey you will allow Imogen the time to find herself while you deal with your own demons."
"Okay" she looked shocked at his quick agreement, "what, you agree just like that, no questions, I could be sending you into the pits of hell, I don't understand?" He looked at her and smiled
"It’s simple, you have given so much to me already, I trust you."
Again he watched tears slowly fall "I Know you mean that, thank you, now I would like to show you something?" He nodded and just like that they were in a different place. It was a huge room, a sort of otherworldly lounge, with curtains so red they matched her hair, a black corner sofa, a roaring fire place that emitted no heat at all, there were orbs all over, he looked into one, he could see men running, tanks rolling over sand, people screaming.
"Afghanistan" he asked, she nodded.
"Why don’t you stop it?" He couldn’t stop looking in the orb.
"There has to be an order in the world, people need to move through life and into the next, sometimes races need to be brought to heel and unfortunately that means lives are lost, but those that deserve it are allowed to move forward whether it is on the Earth or elsewhere."
The Kiss of a Vampire, the Heart of a Wolf (The Silver Series) Page 8
