A Wild Hunt: an Aether Vitalis Novella

by Mercy Loomis

  A Wild Hunt

  by Mercy Loomis

  Smashwords Edition

  Ebook released 2011 by Mercy Loomis

  Originally released 2009 at www.mercyloomis.com and mercyloomis.blogspot.com

  Cover design by Mercy Loomis and Jon Conner. Images by the Morguefile.com community

  This ebook by Mercy Loomis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivitives 3.0 license. You are free to share, copy, distribute, and transmit the work, but you must attribute the work to Mercy Loomis. You may not use this work for commercial purposes and you may not alter, transform, or build upon the work without the express written permission of Mercy Loomis.

  More information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

  This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead (or undead), is entirely coincidental.

  Madison, WI

  October 30, 2009

  “You're going to start drooling in a minute, and there is nothing sexy about drool.”

  Emma's whisper made Ariane Conant jump, her eyes snapping away from the hot bod sitting three rows in front of them and instead staring daggers at her friend. “I'm not going to drool,” she hissed back.

  Emma smirked at her, tossing her head so that her long dark ponytail was draped over her left shoulder instead of her right. “Only because I'm watching out for you. We're going to have to start sitting closer to the front, or you'll never hear a word of lecture. Look at your notes! We stopped covering nuclear attraction half an hour ago.”

  Ariane glanced down at her notebook with a chagrined grimace. “Damn. Can I borrow your notes later?” The page in front of her was nearly blank. Could she help it if the only attraction that could hold her interest right now was the inescapable pull of Kiran Eckhart? He was one fine specimen of human masculinity, a classic American mutt with his clear Indian complexion and shocking leaf-green eyes, and a slightly bulky muscular physique that came from who-knew-where. The speculation was Ariane's favorite lecture-hall pastime. If only his lab wasn't full! I don't care how badly I'd have to rearrange my schedule…

  Emma's elbow jabbed mercilessly into her ribs. “Ari! You're doing it again!” She shook her head. “Why don't you just ask him out already?”

  Ariane bit her lip, wishing she could. Why did he have to be a human? “What's wrong with looking?”

  “Because you don't just look,” her friend explained with limited patience. “You brood. Obsessively. And despite what the media says, that's not sexy either. Maybe if you had that dreamy-eyed look that girls with crushes are supposed to have. But no, you look like a lion stalking a young gazelle.”

  “Oh, I do not.” Lion was not one of her skins. In fact, she didn't know anyone who had a lion skin. Ridiculous form for Wisconsin, anyway.

  No one ever says “the way a bobcat stalks her prey,” even though one cat stalking prey acts pretty much like any other. Hrmph. Stupid lions get all the glory.

  “Seriously, you need a date. I promise, I can hook you up. There will be a ton of guys at Gary's Halloween party.” Emma's expression was as solemn as if she were recommending a grief counselor.

  Ariane shook her head. “I told you, I've got family stuff going on this weekend.”

  “How can your folks make you come out on Halloween? It's cruel!”

  The ley lines pressed against Ariane's awareness, as if they were as eager as she was for the Hunt. Tomorrow, they seemed to whisper. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. “It's not my fault Halloween's on a Saturday this year. I promised I'd come home this weekend, Em. It's not the end of the world. You'll just have to have my share of the fun for me.”

  Her eyes drifted back to Kiran, who was watching the professor with calculated interest. Ariane had seen him take few notes today, and his manner was that of someone who wanted to be paying attention, but wasn't. His gaze would flick to his left, then he would wrench himself back to the lecture. With a silent sigh, Ariane followed the line of his glances.

  Gloria Vess was in her chemistry lab, which at least meant that Gloria wasn't in Kiran's lab either, even if the bronze-haired girl seemed to hold Kiran's attention just as much as Kiran held Ari's. Ariane disliked her intensely, and had even before Kiran began to show interest. She'd been partnered with Gloria on an experiment or two, and there was just something off about the girl. For all that Gloria was human, she acted like she knew something was odd about Ariane and was determined to ferret it out.

  Not that Ari hadn't run into humans before who, consciously or unconsciously, had noticed that Ariane was not a normal human being. But there was something different about Gloria's attention, something greedy, covetous and calculating.

  In short, Gloria got her hackles up, and Ariane tried to listen to her hackles. They were usually smarter than she was.

  “Can we at least go out tonight then?” Emma persisted, jarring Ariane from her contemplations.

  “I suppose,” Ariane replied, a little sharply. “Really though, what has gotten…” She trailed off, turning to face her friend with a wary look. “Em, no.”

  Emma didn't even have the courtesy to look ashamed. “I really think you'll like this one, Ari.”

  “No. No more blind dates!”

  “It's not a date. It's just a bunch of people mingling at a bar. C'mon, Ari, please? You worry me.”

  Ariane sighed. She liked Emma, she really did. She had to remind herself of that at times like this, or she might be tempted to tell Emma more than was good for her. Humans who knew about the fae tended to come to bad ends.

  And that is precisely why I don't date them.

  If only she could find a skinshifter to match Kiran.

  The lecture ended, the sudden clamor of students getting up startling Ari and Emma both. Ariane saw Kiran detour past Gloria, a fevered excitement in his eyes. Gloria smiled at him and shook her head. Over the din, Ariane's sharp ears picked up the other girl's murmured, “Later.”

  Oh, it's probably just as well. Dammit. “If it'll make you lay off for awhile, fine,” Ariane muttered, watching Kiran's admirable backside as he filed out of the room. “I could use a drink, all of a sudden.”

  * * * *

  Ariane glanced over her shoulder warily as she headed down the alley, glad to leave the noisy bar behind. Emma's friend had seemed nice enough, which normally made Ariane feel like a heel. She hated fending off the ones she'd really rather get to know. But tonight she was on edge, and it wasn't just due to the approaching holiday. There wasn't any one thing that made her feel she was being hunted, no single scent or sound—more like glimpses out of the corner of her eye, nuances in the crowd's movement. If she didn't know better, she'd swear—

  Her toe caught against something and she went sprawling with a startled yelp, turning her face to one side out of habit to avoid smacking her nose into the concrete, catching herself in a sort of controlled push-up. With a disgusted sigh for her own clumsiness, she raised her head and found her view blocked by a black leather boot. Her heart sinking, Ariane followed that boot up, her eyes skimming over the tight, worn blue jeans and the even tighter t-shirt until she got to the vampire's face.

  She bit back a groan.

  “I thought you fae were supposed to be graceful,” Gabriel Chapel said, raising one eyebrow. The dim streetlights made his odd grey eyes shift from almost green to a pale blue.

  “Some more than others,” Ariane replied cautiously, too wary of him to fire off the shrewish retort that imm
ediately came to mind. She stayed sprawled out on the cold concrete until Gabriel bent down and offered her a hand up. His skin was cool and dry, and he lifted her to her feet with frightening ease, but Ariane was used to that part.

  “I'm glad I caught you,” he continued, holding onto her hand despite her gentle attempt to disengage. Oh, this was not good at all. “I almost thought you were avoiding me.”

  “I didn't expect to see you here.” Ariane glanced behind her. The alley opened up onto State Street, only a few blocks from Library Mall, and Madison's resident vampire typically avoided the university campus.

  Gabriel smiled his warm friendly smile. It crinkled the corners of his eyes and everything. “I was looking for you, actually. I thought perhaps you might be able to do me a favor.”

  He still had hold of her hand. Ariane was not bound by being caught like some of the other fae were, but even skinshifters like herself were more inclined to be helpful under the right circumstances. “What kind of favor?”

  “I've heard whispers, not even rumors really, of a gathering of mages.” The smile vanished, replaced by a more genuine frown of distaste. “I know November Eve is a special day for you, but I would consider it a personal favor if you and yours might swing by Picnic Point and make sure no one is getting up to mischief.”

  It was Ariane's turn to frown. “What kind of rumors?”

  “So you'll go?”

  She sighed. Vampires and skinshifters avoided each other on principle in most cities, but Madison was not your average college town. The ley lines running through campus attracted a host of mages, as well as spirits, demons, and fae. Gabriel and the skinshifters had an uneasy alliance, made more amenable in recent years since Ariane's little brother Marty became best friends with the son of Gabriel’s pet mage. Ari’s father, Martin Sr., was the usual liaison between the shifter community and the vampire, but Dad was in Wales right now visiting family.

  All of that made Ariane an all-too-convenient contact if the vampire wanted something. Still, having him owe her a favor... “Yes, I'll at least look into it.”

  He nodded and released her hand. Finally. “Recruitment, from the sounds of things, though none of my contacts can get much more than that.” Ariane snickered to herself, knowing his “contacts” were the club-going twenty-somethings he usually fed from. “One expects a certain amount of secretive behavior with that, but it's been surprisingly difficult to get any more information, especially considering how many people I've heard the whispers from. Even the mages I've asked couldn’t tell me anything.”

  Not that they necessarily would. Ariane pursed her lips. “Mages form cadres all the time, you know…”

  The look he gave her withered the words in her throat. “I'm quite well aware, Ari. I'm not asking you to intervene. I just want to know what they're up to. If all they want to do is worship the full moon, wonderful. If they're summoning demons, I need to know. I hate competition.”

  “Right.” She swallowed hard. “Spying. I can do that.”

  The vampire smiled, his real smile this time, cold and thin and with the distantly fond air of a craftsman admiring one of his tools. “I know.”

  ***

  The next night was November Eve, and Ariane regretfully found herself winging toward Picnic Point. She hadn't bothered to ask any of the other skinshifters if they wanted to join her—most preferred to keep as much distance from Gabriel and his lot as possible, even if the information to be gained would benefit the whole host.

  She clacked her beak in irritation. Marty would've come, of course, but the last thing she needed was a teenage boy to look after. Besides, he spent too much time with the vampire ilk as it was. Ariane suppressed a shiver that would've sent her off course. Despite their immunity to psychic tricks, a lone skinshifter was no match for even a young vampire, much less one as ancient as Gabriel was purported to be.

  A quick pass over the park, and probably ten minutes or so of watching some boring ritual, and then I can try to catch up with the rest of the host.

  They'd be out in the countryside, Hunting through the farmers' fields till morning. Though the skinshifters had broken free of Faerie’s rulers and fled to the mortal realm, the shifters were still fae, and the Wild Hunt was in their blood. Each May Eve and November Eve they joined the faerie host, riding through the wild places in search of mortals to carry away, and bestowing blessings on those few who remembered to honor the host.

  Ariane followed the ley lines over Bascom Hill and along the lakeshore toward the Point, already thinking ahead to where she might rendezvous with her fae kin.

  The ley lines shivered under her.

  Ariane's wings stopped rowing the air. She glided, concentrating on the energy sense that let her kind find the faerie paths and pookha holes that led to the Underground.

  Something was definitely stirring up ahead. With new determination Ariane followed the dissonance in the lines, crossing briefly over Lake Mendota until she came to a clearing on the small peninsula that was Picnic Point. She landed quietly on a tree branch and studied the figures before her.

  Three women in long, dark robes stood before two men and a woman dressed in apparently whatever white clothes they happened to own. Ariane stared hard at the man closest to her, hardly able to believe her avian eyes. Without meaning to she spoke aloud, a surprised crow squawk that echoed through the trees.

  “Kiran?”

  None of the figures below paid any attention to her. Kiran's dark face was solemn, his wavy black hair whipped by the stiff breeze into an unruly halo. Was he a mage? He sure as hell didn't smell like one. But then, neither did Gloria, and Gloria was standing directly in front of Kiran in one of the long robes.

  The three initiates—or so Ariane supposed they must be—each handed something to the robed woman in front of them and then knelt at her feet.

  “All that I am is in your hands,” the initiates said, more or less together.

  Ariane shifted uneasily on her branch. What a stupid thing to say.

  Each of the dark-robed mages held up her left hand, placing her right hand on the brow of the initiate in front of them. “Then give yourself into my keeping, and open your mind and soul to Magic.”

  The bottom dropped out of Ariane's stomach as the surrounding ley line energy was diverted from its usual course and channeled, roaring and unfiltered, into the initiates. Though she couldn't touch or use the lines herself, like all skinshifters she felt them resonate, a hum in her ears, a breeze against her cheek. This disruption of the lines rattled her bones so badly that she was nearly shaken right out of her skin. While Ariane clung to her crow form, the three initiates began to scream.

  The diverted energies surged through the shrieking humans, forcing open all the paths of their psyches before finally escaping back into the ground.

  The other male initiate evened out first, his cries subsiding into harsh sobbing breaths. Though his face was haggard with pain, a look of wonder came over him, and Ariane felt the current running through him shift as he touched it.

  The mage in front of him switched the position of her hands, and spoke. “What I have given, I may take.”

  Ariane caught her breath as the screams started again. The mage was drawing energy out of the man now, and the more she drew, the less was able to flow through him, until the ley line disengaged completely and settled back into its normal course.

  The man dropped unconscious onto the ground, just as Gloria switched hands on Kiran's forehead.

  “Oh Hell no,” Ariane snapped.

  Launching herself from her branch, Ariane released her crow skin, breathing out her aetherial self and pulling the skin after her. Both slipped through the crow's beak like thread through the eye of a needle. Sight fled, but her energy sense fed her the shape and taste of everything around her far better than eyes could do. As the crow vanished into the aether, Ariane took hold of her horse skin. The misty ball of air—all that was left of her ancestors' true form—swirled and condensed, pourin
g through the needle's eye from the other direction.

  Her front hooves struck the ground with a thud-thud that was lost under the humans' cries. Another thud-thud as her back feet landed, hindquarters bunched, tail high in indignation. She heard Gloria speak, heard Kiran screaming anew, before her sight returned and the energy sense faded into the background. Five seconds, maybe less, but Kiran needed help now. With all the momentum of the crow's stooping dive, Ariane charged Gloria.

  Unfortunately, she had to come at them from the side to avoid hitting Kiran. The sound or the movement caught Gloria's attention. The mage's head snapped around, her eyes widening as over a thousand pounds of angry black horse came barreling toward her. Yelping a curse, Gloria dove behind Kiran.

  Drat. Well, at least she's not touching him anymore. Ariane snorted and switched targets. The mage draining the female initiate was right in front of her, and apparently having a harder time of it than her compatriots. She'd barely looked up before Ariane was on her.

  Her forefeet struck the mage's legs, knocking the robed woman to the ground. She fell a little to one side, so only two of Ariane's hooves made contact as she deliberately trampled the mage. One went crunch, and one went squish, but the lumpy body or the long robes caught Ariane's feet and she tripped. She stumbled and nearly fell, catching her stride in a drunken lurch that almost sent her careening into a tree.

  Neighing a stream of expletives, Ariane wheeled around. The male initiate was still unconscious on the ground. The mage that had drained him had stumbled back a few steps, staring at the mage Ariane had just crushed, who was hopefully in the process of gasping her last. The female initiate was curled in a ball, clutching her head and apparently still trying to come to grips with the ley line. Kiran was on his knees, shaking his head and looking like a hung-over man in a fog. Behind him, Gloria scrambled to her feet. With an angry hiss, Gloria grabbed Kiran roughly by the hair, pointed at Ariane with her free hand, and started chanting.

  Eep! Move, move, move! Ariane leapt forward, darting toward the unconscious man and the mage next to him.