Ch. 34: Jack's Dive
September 11 | Day
Pass through the stand of live oak where the Spanish moss spills from limbs that kiss the sky and caress the ground. You'll know you're near the place when you stumble upon graves. The cemetery stretches as far as loss and despair, but go through it. Don't stop. Follow the sunset, one foot before the other. You'll find the stream. Dive into it. You're nearly there.
I went over Yalina's instructions in my head for the umpteenth time. Sunny and I had traveled through the cemetery straight as the crow flew toward sunset. We had cleared the forest, which wasn't primordial, but was ancient enough for the woods to feel bereft of the civilizing touch of humans.
In the clearing where we found ourselves, teal blades of grass danced on a breeze, and irises lapped purple tongues at the wind. Animals stirred in the underbrush, peaceful enough not to trouble us. I watched a baby deer tiptoe from the treeline on skinny legs and poke its chocolate nose into the foliage. It ran off as thunder and lightning crackled above the treetops. The weather was worsening.
We stood on the banks of what might have been a stream once upon a time but was now more of a river. Yalina had perhaps misremembered details. I ran a hand over my gritty face and scratched a cornea with a knuckle, worried about when Mr. Cyprian would notice us gone.
"Climate change?" I complained.
"Probably heavy rains further north," Sunny replied. "Conversely, it's been two decades since Yalina was last here. This body of water could have been swelling since her childhood."
"Shit... I don't see the stone she told us would mark the spot, either. I think the river's covering it. I'm gonna have to go in. "
"'Go in,' as in swim it? We don't know how deep it goes."
I shrugged. "Can't be more than a few feet."
"Could," Sunny pushed back.
"Got any other ideas?" I asked. He expelled a breath and unclasped his sword to dive in with me, but I stopped him. "Stay here and watch for those Fext soldiers Mal said might be out here."
"I don't like this, Jack."
I wasn't exactly thrilled, either, but the idea of Darcy hiring a team of divers to retrieve the map propelled me to the shoreline. "What are they, anyway?" I tugged off my red t-shirt and shimmied out of my jeans.
"What are what?" Sunny asked.
"Fext soldiers." I smelled them in the wind. At least, I figured that's what I smelled. Distant but present. The cold odor of guns, the spicy kick of gunpowder. Another werewolf somewhere, too. Zyr Ravani, probably. Sunny and I had to be careful not to run into anyone.
Leaving my shoes and socks in a pile, I folded my clothes on top. My dying cellphone fell from a pocket. I needed to wrap this mission before we lost battery power completely. A weather alert had come across. I didn't bother opening it. It was obvious the weather was bad. We just had to leave this place as soon as possible.
"Fext soldiers are, erm, the Slavic undead. They're impervious to every weapon except glass bullets," said my friend.
"Overlay City was full of types," I grunted, ready to take the leap.
"Hey." Sunny clenched my wrist. "Be careful, Jack."
I faced him, knowing what he wanted, and he knew what I craved. His lips, his hands, his hot body against mine. He stepped into my arms for a brief escape from our harsh reality. As his tongue curled past my teeth, I felt him trembling. The kiss deepened.
We were scared for each other. The thing about trauma was that while the traumatic thing was occuring, the possibility of death seemed a mere possibility. Later, we would have the hindsight to see where we should have been hysterical. Sunny moaned into my mouthlike the notes of a love song. I put space between us before I couldn't anymore.
"You gotta let me go. With this thunderstorm, we don't have much daylight left," I admonished gently.
Proving me right, thunder rumbled again as I jumped into the river. The rolling cacophony jarred me, ominous. Water dribbled down my face when I resurfaced. Sinuous arms cut through the current, and I pushed myself to find midstream. The standing stone should have been protruding from there, according to Yalina.
The Map of Destiny was in a chest buried at the base of the stone. I couldn't imagine anything less than a mermaid finding it easily. Ironic that whatever powers that be had entrusted its care to werewolves. I allowed myself to shift in order to test if wolf-shape might make the swim easier.
I had a secret, though. I hated shifting, hated the wild dark. Every transformation was a reminder I hadn't chosen to become Supernatural. Lycanthropy had been thrust upon me. Irrespective of that, being a werewolf had its perks. Namely, it gave me the strength and stamina I needed for the task at hand.
The transformation dimmed my vision. The whites of my eyes exposed as the pain-pleasure rippled through me. I grunted at the sharp contracture of muscles reshaping. It was like sex, but rougher. Like tearing into a steak, but more savage. Groaning, I let the morph complete. My boxers, my last article of clothing, floated off. Subsequently, with four legs instead of two, I dog-paddled my way through the rushing waters.
My inner wolf yipped at being released. Man-thoughts blurred as the animal in me took over, but there was enough rationality left to make sense of where I was and what I was doing. I scrounged for the stone. Submerged beneath the waves, it was impossible to see through the murk. So, I came up for air and went down again, trying to feel my way through, but the swim quickly tired even the wolf.
"Any luck?" Sunny called after a handful of minutes. I tossed my head and yelped. I swam farther in search of the stone. He followed me, but he didn't see me losing momentum.
Some struggles are silent. No screams. No pleas for assistance. I realized I was in trouble the minute the swift-moving current yanked me into its flow. I wanted Sunny to notice, but I couldn't lift my head.
Help me, I channeled. Help!
I warred with the water, observed the brown champagne bubbles of drowning speed past me to while I sank. Blindness wet my eyes. Tangled roots clawed my ankles. The Ravani DNA in my veins that usually promised rapid healing offered no resolution for lack of oxygen. I crested the riptide and chomped at a piece of driftwood. Carried in eddies and swirls beyond my jaws, it offered no safety.
Yowling, I morphed back into man-shape. I needed hands. At that moment, Sunny deduced what was happening and cried my name in consternation. I tried to rotate to find him. Unfortunately, the river carried me faster and farther away.
"Sunny," my damp voice barely registered. He sprinted along the shore after me.
"Jack, I'm coming in!" he yelled.
"Don't!" I choked on a mouthful of water and coughed. "Get a–branch."
My lover searched frantically for a tree branch that might reach me. But from the woods emerged two Fext soldiers. I gurgled to warn Sunny as the river tugged me onward. I didn't notice the dead tree stretching across the water until it struck the back of my head. With a grunt, I tried to cling to wakefulness, but my life flashed in a montage of gaiety. (Funny how drowning drew forth memories that made one want to stay alive.)
I witnessed moments I had forgotten and those my soul would remember into the next lifetime. My parents sneaking a kiss, Dad talking to Mom in Slovak, chuckling softly as she blushed. High school, my brief go at college. Tony Black N' White hanging at the carwash. Prison, but the good parts. Pushing weights in the yard, listening to the old-timers impart sage advice.
I remembered watching Sunny through the glass sliding doors that first day. The sight of Mal as the car door opened and I guessed wrongly–but later rightly–that she was for me. Our first and last time sharing a ménage à trois. The fights that flowered into forgiveness. Gifts given and touches stolen.
The lights were going out. Unconsciousness in the water spelled death. The dismay in Sunny's screams at being attacked by the soldiers pierced through the dusk of lost awareness, but sounds also faded. I wondered what Mal would think when she found out we were finished before we started.
***
The Oracle floated above the hospital bed. I knew her this time. "Haley," I whispered.
Her white eyes lit upon me. "I am the Oracle of the Court of Immortals, and you...have conquered your shadow. Hello, Jack." She smiled.
"Why am I here? Am I dead?" I touched the back of my head. It ached, despite werewolf regenerative abilities. I couldn't remember what had happened to me. I needed to know if I had failed.
"Only if you choose." Her smile broadened. "The artifact you seek has been removed."
"Then, we're fighting a losing battle! I thought you said I would defeat my enemy."
"And you did, Jack. You know the old tale. Inside each of us are two wolves, a black one and a white one, constantly at war with one another."
Her words rankled me. "Yeah, yeah, and the one who wins is the one you feed. I get it. I finally fed the white wolf instead of the black one. I overcame my quest for revenge by calling off the hitmen, but what good does that do if I can't stop Darcy Cyprian from destroying our world?" I asked.
The Oracle shook her head eloquently as her levitating body lowered to the hospital bed. Her curly hair and the belts of the beige straightjacket she wore moved as if the air was fluid. She had the look of a woman at once on the brink of madness and yet more beatific and enlightened than any madman might aspire to be.
"You misunderstand," she murmured. "Inside each of us are two wolves, and the one you starve is the one that wreaks the most havoc in your life. It manifests in your subconscious behavior. Now that you have conquered your shadow, you must summon those hidden parts of yourself for your highest good. It's the only way to overcome the vampire. What is being asked of you by destiny is no easy task."
"Yeah, no shit." I laughed bitterly. "Alright, what are the hidden parts of myself?"
"You would know better than anyone. Greed, selfishness, envy. Pick your poison. You think being a good person means foregoing your desires. Nevertheless, your desire to have all that you want–the people you love, the money, accolades, respect–makes you, you. Allow yourself to be. Embrace the wolf Fate has given you. Nothing that has happened to you has happened by chance. You have chosen everything. Only choose to fight for yourself."
I wasn't sure what she meant. I had been brought back to the place of the Oracle to receive a message, and I had to trust it. If going against Darcy Cyprian was my destiny, regardless of the lonely path that had brought me to that realization, I wasn't alone. I had a hunch Zyr Ravani and his friends were on the same mission. In addition, thanks to meeting Kato, members of OASIS were on the battlefront. The Oracle's encouragement made me understand the vampire posed a unique threat that needed to be eliminated.
I just needed to believe in myself. The cryptic message echoed in the open space until the Oracle's voice faded and Haley blinked. She was back to the teenage girl that she truly was. I wanted to hug her.
"We have to quit meeting like this," I chuckled.
"Jack! Did you find my sister?"
I lowered my head. "My partners and I are working to keep Mr. Cyprian away from Aurie, but I need your help," I said as I lifted my gaze. "We discovered the vampire is after the Map of Destiny, and if we don't find it before he does, the entire world is in danger."
She laughed and glanced skyward (in the all-white nothingness.) "Let me guess. You, personally, have been called upon to save the world? You know, in the circles I've been frequenting lately, they'd call that delusions of grandeur."
"Maybe." I grinned. "Listen, the map isn't where it was supposed to be. I heard you have some witchiness about you. Think you can use a spell to help me find it?"
"I don't know, but I can try. Give me your hands."
This time when I moved toward her, she didn't drift away. I tenderly unfastened her restraints. She opened her palms face up and gazed at me expectantly. I placed my hands atop hers. Her palms felt warm and dry. I listened to my breathing, my heartbeat, waiting for magic. I didn't know what it would feel like, nor whether it would work, but I had to believe Haley had shown up for a reason.
"I'm ready," I prodded her along.
She murmured what sounded like a refrain, a rhyming prayer:
"Ancestors to the west, the east, the north, and the south,
Heed the request that issues forth from my mouth.
Let the eyes find what the heart seeks most pure.
Illuminate the path to that which is obscured.
"Àṣẹ," she closed it.
"Ah-shay," I repeated the unfamiliar word.
"It's done. You can wake up now, but Jack?"
"Yes?"
"Take shelter," said Haley. "A storm is coming."