Chapter Twenty-One
"Little Red, Little Red..."
I groaned from where I lay sprawled on the forest floor. "Have I told you how much I hate you?"
His chuckle seemed to reverberate from tree to tree, filling up the empty air around us. Catching my breath was proving hard this time and when I cracked open an eye, I caught Andrzej's smiling face hanging over me.
"I don't think you've told me in the past two minutes." He checked a pocket watch which resided in a small pocket in his vest. "Yeah, two and a half minutes. You whine too much."
I tried to smack at him but he was too far away so I tried to kick him but my legs wouldn't lift.
"You need endurance."
"You need..." I scrunched up my face in frustration when I couldn't come up with a good come back. "You need a haircut."
"Oh. Ok. Sure. Let's go with that. Get up."
"Can't I have a few more minutes?"
"No. Now get up." He kicked me gently in the calf. "You almost had it last time."
Begrudgingly, I carefully got up. My back was hurting, my legs felt like they were about to fall off, my arms were the only thing that weren't in pain at the moment but I knew once they had a chance to stiffen up, my shoulder muscles would ache. When I got to my feet, I stumbled a bit and like all the times before, Andrzej was there to steady me.
"You good?" I nodded and he took several steps back. "Scale of one to ten, easy to hard, tell me how the visions were."
"About a seven."
"You said that last time."
"Well, friend, it's not getting any easier."
"That's because you're thinking about it. You need to let go a little and let your particular do the work. Self preservation is always the highest on your powers list of priorities. If you don't exist, the particular doesn't exist and whatever higher functioning it's working on..." He stared at me hard for a moment. "Never mind. It's too complicated to explain at the moment. I think we need to get a little more life threatening."
"How much more life threatening?"
Without answering, he stalked over to the bundle he'd brought with him. When he opened it before, I hadn't paid much attention. My sole focus was on the landscape. We were in a forest, a barely there layer of snow covering the ground around us with more flakes coming down at a leisurely pace. Last time I checked it was only winter in the Southern hemisphere but the way the trees looked...
"Where are we?"
He hadn't told me then and as I watched him roll out the bundle now, I was suddenly hoping there was a town or village nearby when I ran away from him screaming.
"Those are pointy." Without looking, he tossed one to me and with better reflexes I never would've known I had before today, I caught it. "And very heavy. Are you sure swords are the best way to go about this?"
"I was going to use throwing stars," he said as he began to roll the bundle back up. "But I thought that was rather one sided. You need a fighting chance after all."
"You do realize I can barely lift this thing." I looked over the rather sharp edge, pointy end down, my face twisting up in a mix of wonder and fear. "I'm starting to miss normal high school drama."
Andrzej snorted, handling the weaponry with more ease than humanly possible. Then again we weren't human, well, I was more human than he was, but that wasn't the point. "There'll be plenty of that later." He took his eyes away from his blade and looked at me, that feral glint back in his eyes. "Do you need some instruction on how to handle it?"
"The high school drama?"
"The sword."
I tried not to smile at his more than obvious irritation. "Are you sure you don't want to start with throwing stars? If it helps, I can tell you I would feel just as threatened if you used those as that sword you're currently...messing with." Like he did with the coin, he was rolling the hilt of the sword over all of his knuckles.
"I like the sword. It's making you...really nervous."
"Well that's because it weights as much as a toddler and it's really sharp. I'm not good with sharp in case you were wondering. Schylar never lets me handle a knife anymore after that one pesky incident..."
"What's up with that?"
I took my eyes off the blade, for some reason they kept finding their way back to staring at it, and frowned at him. "Up with what?"
"You and the q-tip?"
"Q-tip? He's not..."
"He's like one of those q-tips you see at the doctor's office. The one sided ones..."
That got my anger going. "Are you seriously making fun of my best friend right now?"
"I've never seen a white boy with an afro."
"If I could lift this, I would attack you."
"Aw, is Little Red getting angry? That's so cute."
"Don't call me cute."
"Why not? It's what you are. Cute."
"Says the guy who turns into a fluffy werewolf every month."
His eyes got dark and the amusement dropped off his face. "There's nothing fluffy about being a werewolf."
"Sure about that? You know what they say, you're all as big as barns and as sweet as chocolate."
"Sweet? I'm not sweet and I sure as hell am not sweet when I'm in werewolf mode."
"Sure about that?" I was saying that a lot. "From what I saw..."
"I told you. I'm not that docile."
"I would hardly say you banging against your cage and then stampeding towards me docile..."
"You're just one of those people who sees the good in everything, aren't you?"
"Who said I was making it good? I get it. You're the Big Bad Wol—hey!"
Without warning, and like he'd already done so many times before, he rushed me. And like all my reactions before, I panicked and acted more like a girl than I usually do. Normally people just attack me with their words and they don't do it that often. I can hold up my end of a good banter any time but when it came to being physical, I wasn't much of a fighter. I knew your basic stuff, my uncle and father thought it important that I knew which spots on a teenage boy's body to hit if they were making a pass I didn't like.
But Andrzej wasn't making a pass at me. He was charging me. With a sword. A really sharp and pointy sword. I'll admit I was a little entranced by the way he moved and how confidently he held the thing. But when he launched himself off the flat ground like he was an aerial acrobat, I knew I had to move or I would be sliced in half.
So I moved, with much more grace than I ever thought I had, and my body acted on its own, making my arms bring up the rather large sword and strike out at him.
What the popsicle sticks was that?!
I stared rather wide eyed as the sword in my hand arched up from the ground, about to slash my "partner" across the back. But like he knew I was going to do it, he deflected by poising the sword parallel with his spine, making his shoulder muscles prominent under his shirt and vest.
The next couple of seconds were all flashes of metal and silence as I just went off instinct. I found if I thought about it too much, I wavered. My movements became slow and drawn out instead of the quick, no nonsense actions of when I wasn't thinking. If someone was looking in on us, I was sure they would think I knew what I was doing, that our little practice session was indeed a battle to the death but the only thing I've ever came close to welding like this was my golf club.
We ended as abruptly as we started.
He disarmed me, my sword falling off to the way side as his was poised right up against my neck, the blade chaffing my skin and floating in midair. He could've cut my head off but he checked himself at the last possible second and I should've probably ducked or moved out of the way but I remained still, fixed in place by the look in his eyes.
There was a swirl in his left eye, one of the life lines had leaked into the corner of his eye. I'd seen Cecil's do the same thing when he was glimpsing into the past. Only difference was, the life line wasn't swirling around his pupil but bringing a sort of yellow tint to his dark eyes.
And yellow was the same exact color of the wolf's eyes in my vision and it was confirmed for me, without a doubt, that it would be him in that cage, banging against the bars to be let out while Chris and Cecil wrestled on the ground a few feet away and not anyone else.
Almost as if thinking about my past vision triggered me seeing it again, I was taken back to that night, to my future self as I stood there in complete panic and fright. The ringing of metal against body filled my ears along with my cries for the boys to stop.
When the wolf finally broke free of his cage, I saw him stumble from his recent freedom, catching himself instantly, and then he started stalking over in my direction. There was something different about him this time. He was less wild, less beast and more man, and now that he was free, he was weary of the two boys and watching them with muscles tense, willing to pounce at any moment if needed. However his focus remained on me even though he was obviously watching them.
The sudden urge to run sprang up inside of me and I took a step back, my heel snapping a branch rather loudly. You never realize how loud that sound is until it happens to you at the worst time. The noise seemed to slow everything down as the wolf's head wiped in my direction, barring his teeth in warning. That expression clearly stated Don't move.
A startled cry rang out and I knew it was Cecil and not Chris. I took a step forward, my impulse to do something to make them stop renewed but that just ended badly. As I watched Cecil rear back with a flash of metal barely missing his face, I was slammed into by the wolf.
I don't know if it was the force of the blow or that the vision just ended but I was catapulted back into the present, the impact of which made me falter where I stood. Andrzej tossed his sword away just as my knees gave out. He caught me before I hit the snow and for what felt like the hundredth time in the past couple of days, I couldn't catch my breath.
This was getting really old very fast and the fact that I knew I would live the rest of my life with this "gift" was not a happy epiphany.
"Take deep breaths," Andrzej instructed as he carted me over to his rolled up pack and not so gently deposited me on the tree stump it'd been sitting on before he picked it up by the canvass handle. "Thankfully Tina gave me an inhaler when I told her what I had planned for today."
I really wanted to glare at him, thinking if he knew this was going to happen then why didn't he keep it from happening. But instead I just braced my hands on my knees and focused on trying to breathe.
"I really think giving an asthmatic the future time particular wasn't the brightest idea."
He fished an inhaler out of one of the pockets on the end and handed it to me. At this point I wasn't exactly thrilled with him so I snatched the plastic encased medicine. Snow was soaked in through my shoes and the bottom cuffs of my jeans. I wanted to be able to control this without using an inhaler. Being dependent on that thing was not something I wanted to go back to doing so I closed my eyes, wiggled my toes, and focused.
In and out.
Deep breaths vs. shallow breaths.
Fighting to keep my airways open.
It's all in your head.
When I finally opened my eyes, Andrzej was relaxing up against a tree a few feet away. That shinny coin rolling across his knuckles before being tucked into his palm and the journey restarted by his thumb.
"You're getting better," he commented, not taking his eyes off the coin.
"How do you figure?" my voice was still a little horse but it would clear out soon.
"You didn't need your inhaler and you actually used your particular in regular time during that fight. It seems you did need a little more incentive, or at least your particular did."
"Meaning?"
"You didn't really think all that swordplay was you, did you? At your own admission, you've never used one before."
"When did I admit that?"
Finally his eyes lifted to meet mine. They were back to being the cold, dark, and detached version with a hint of wildness. He almost looked at home here in the woods, at least more so then he did anywhere else I've seen him. Something about him had just relaxed the moment we got here and had yet to tie itself back up so it was taut.
"The point is, you're getting better and that suits our purposes perfectly. You'll be ready before you know it." He stood up with lithe grace and dusted his pants of snow. "It's time to go."
"Already?" my words dripped with sarcasm as I rose to my feet. "And here I thought we were just getting started."
He shrugged. "We'll come back tomorrow."
"Where is here, exactly?"
"Russia, 1917. The beginning of the end..."
"Of the reign of His Imperial Majesty The Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, Tsar Nicholas the Second." We both turned to look at where the familiar voice came from. "Interesting you bring her here, Lycaon. Of all places."
Hades strolled out of the trees like he was doing nothing more than taking a leisurely walk in the woods. He even snagged a few pine needles off one of the branches as he passed.
"Why are you here?" Andrzej asked while discretely moving in front of me.
"I need a word with your εταίρος, boy. That's why I'm here and I don't take kindly to you questioning me." He started breaking the needles apart and letting the little bits fall to the ground. "Now, you can be a good little wolf and take a walk or I'll send you back where you came from to agonize over what we're doing until I send her back as well."
I felt Andrzej stiffen in front of me, the uneasiness of the situation was visible in his shoulders as he held them stiffly but completely on alert. I don't know what told me to but I reached forward and grabbed a hold of Andrzej's hand, his long fingers alternating between mine. Hades eyed the gesture with an uplift of his eyebrow.
"So...settling in to our new powers, are we, Epiphany?"
I moved so I was standing beside Andrzej instead of behind him. "You could say that."
"I don't think my Cyrus would take kindly to you holding another boy's hand."
"I think in this situation he would understand." I gripped Andrzej's hand tighter. "Now, if you don't mind, we have to get going. I have homework that needs to be done and not all the time in the world to do it in."
I took a step away but Hades clicked his tongue in warning, stilling my retreat. "I don't think so, my dear." I looked up at him but he was still plucking at those damn pine needles. "Would it help if I told you my purpose with speaking you is completely harmless?"
"You've tried to kill me once already. Why should I believe you?"
"Because gods don't lie," Andrzej said softly. "They bend the truth a little but if he says..."
Hades looked up from the needles, his eyes locking with mine. There was apprehension in his eyes maybe even a little desperation but as swiftly as he showed me his inner turmoil, it was gone.
"So. What'll it be?"
I looked up at Andrzej but he was still staring at Hades. "I don't trust him," he whispered.
"Funny, considering you don't trust any of the gods, not even your patron," Hades said. "I find that quite interesting. I believe your god finds that a tad offensive."
"We have an understanding," Andrzej said carefully. "He knows perfectly well why I don't trust him..."
"And yet he trusts you, just like Janus, explicitly." Hades let all the remaining needles fall to the ground and clasped his hands behind his back. "I mean her no harm and I am fully sincere in my words."
Andrzej narrowed his eyes. "Something's happened."
"Quite." Hades's shifted his attention to me. "So what'll it be?"
I continued to stare at him but I began letting Andrzej's hand go. He wasn't having it, not at all and clasped my hand tighter after he felt mine slacken.
"Rakli..."
"Go get Cecil," I said firmly. "I'll be fine until then."
Andrzej finally looked down at me. "What's he supposed to do?"
"You'll see. Go." I didn't take my eyes off Hades but taking Andrzej by surprise, I pulled my hand out of his. Just as he reached out to take my hand back, he was gone, leaving me standing in the snow with Hades.
I was either smart or the biggest idiot ever.