Blood of Eden

Chapter 24

Katherine listened to her cousin go on and on about his family and knew that he had found what everyone searched for in life, a real love. Damien had a very handsome life partner named Joel as well as a five-month-old daughter named Angelica that they had adopted when a new mother within the pack was killed tragically in a car accident.

Katherine had only seen emailed pictures of Angelica so far, but she'd seen enough to know that the little girl was the splitting image of her mother, Jayme, a close childhood friend of Katherine's that she still mourned. Jayme's death had been so quick and thoughtless; a drunk driver had run her off the road as she drove to pick up her infant daughter from the babysitter's.

Katherine was happy for Damien and Joel, but she knew that their happiness came at the expense of another life, and for that she was sad. She knew that they felt the pull of emotions too. A love so deep for their new tiny daughter as well as searing pain that she would never know the woman who birthed her, and loved her every moment of her early life.

Finally, Damien got around to business and asked Katherine the reason behind her early morning phone call. Katherine decided to come straight to the point and asked, "I want to ask you a few questions about wolf lore. Specifically, any stories dealing with regeneration to the heart."

Damien laughed aloud, "Really? That's what you called about? Katherine, you know the stories as well as I do. I think you actually told me the first tale I ever heard about it."

"I know Damien, but I was wondering if maybe you had done any additional research into the tales. Anything you know would be a great help." Katherine tried to sound nonchalant as she questioned her cousin, but she feared that she was coming across slightly desperate. Fortunately for her, Damien was more than just a cousin; he was a geeky academic who often assumed that most people were as interested in his work as he was himself.

"Ok. Well, I did write an article about wolf lore for a Folklore journal recently and I touched on the regeneration myth."

Katherine heard Damien sifting through papers.

"Here it is," he said, "you'll love this. Remember Tabitha's great Aunt Roslyn? She's ancient, like close to nine hundred. So basically she's been around since the dawn of time and she's this amazing fount of information. She has stories that haven't been told in generations. She told me this one story that I put into the article about an ancient wolf named Isaac who couldn't be killed by any object, silver or not. The story went that he was descended from an ancient line of wolves who were the guardians of our kind. They lived much longer than we live, which, in human years would mean the equivalent of basically eons. Our people have been known to live more than a thousand years if they're lucky. Most only live to be around Roslyn's age. I say just, but seriously, that's a ripe old age for anyone."

Katherine heard Damien sigh deeply, "Katherine, you know better than most just how hard it is to live among humans when they live for so short a time. It's hard to see them age and die while we stay young. Our careers are precarious and we're forced to move around, never really getting to settle into one life, one group of friends. In the human world we're limited, and sometimes it gets really hard. Fortunately for us, we have lots of family who are just like us, and who understand us."

He paused for a moment then clicked his tongue as if reminding himself what the real conversation was about. "But, I digress. I was telling you about Isaac."

Katherine heard Damien flipping quickly through the pages of another book and smiled, he sure loved his books.

"Roslyn told me that there was an ancient line of wolves dating back to the Garden of Eden. The story basically says that we're the descents of Cain, as in Cain and Abel the sons of Adam and Eve. If you'll remember your Bible, Cain was jealous of Abel's relationship with God and he killed his brother in an angry fit and was cursed by God for the rest of eternity. His descendants were to bear a mark for all to see that would identify them as the children of Cain and they would be considered monsters. He became one of us.