3. Possibilities #2
It was Elgar, which was unexpected. The tall, elegant Eyros Vampire stood awkwardly in the threshold for a moment before he swept inside. He closed the door behind him and stood there again. He was such a mixture of confidence and diffidence.
“What can we help you with, Elgar?” Ryder asked as he carried Grayson in his arms inside to the bed.
He gently placed Grayson on the duvet. Graydon hopped on top of Khos so he could have a better view of both Vampires.
The Dire Wolf didn’t even crack an eyelid as he perched on his furry side.
The urge to pluck some of that long fur and build a nest with it amused him.
Elgar stared at Grayson for long, unblinking moments.
“That is… Ashyr?” Elgar finally asked.
“Indeed, but he prefers the name Grayson,” Ryder said as he slid on his pants. He hadn’t lost his clothing in the shift! Ryder glanced down at Grayson with a smile. “We’ll need some more clothing as Grayson’s first shift took his.”
“Of course, I will make sure you have all you need,” Elgar said.
“Now, back to you,” Ryder said as he buttoned his pants. “You didn’t know about our lack of pants so another reason brings you here.”
“Yes.” Elgar crossed his arms at the wrists behind his back. His long dark blue robes swept back behind him as he walked closer to them. “I wish to know what my Master read from your minds that has upset him so.”
Ryder lifted an eyebrow. “I would imagine you could learn that just like he did, Elgar.”
“I could.” Elgar inclined his head for a moment. “But I would prefer not to.”
Why? Grayson danced softly on his little bird feet in the fur.
“Grayson wants to know why as I do. It would seem a far easier thing than asking us to disclose what Eyros hasn’t shared with you willingly,” Ryder pointed out.
Elgar’s lips flattened. “My Master keeps things from me to spare me. But this is foolish. I am his Whisperer. I am his Childe. I am his protector.”
“The middle one is why he doesn’t want you to know and worry,” Ryder said kindly. “He loves you very much, Elgar.”
“As I love him,” Elgar answered.
He’s so different and so the same in the future, Grayson said sadly. I wish we could stop this. I mean what happens to him. How he suffers.
Elgar frowned. “You are communicating. Yet I cannot quite hear it. There is some kind of… bird twittering?”
“Yes.”
“But you can understand him?”
“Yes.” When Elgar continued to look at him, Ryder explained, “Animals’ brains are not quite like ours as you know.
My connection to all of them allows me to tap into their minds in a way that causes me to translate what they are thinking.
With Grayson–as with any shifted Vampire–his mind does not become a bird’s or a wolf’s or anything like that.
Our minds exist outside our bodies. So it is a much more complete connection. ”
“So you are talking mind to mind,” Elgar murmured, his brow furrowed. “Our gifts are more connected than we know.”
I can definitely say that, Grayson agreed. They complement one another in many ways.
“I wonder if you could teach me to speak to animals,” Elgar said.
“Perhaps,” Ryder said. “I know that… that Eyros has had some success with his cat in the future.”
“His… his cat?” Elgar’s forehead furrowed.
“Yes. Meffy… the Battlecat,” Ryder sighed as he said the last part and Grayson knew why.
The little kitten was adorable, but hardly a cat capable of doing much else other than flopping over on his back and looking adorable. Not that there wasn’t power in this. There was plenty of power in cuteness.
“I admit that I cannot quite picture this,” Elgar said. “Eyros has never been fond of animals, particularly cats.”
“Oh, well, he is now,” Ryder said.
Balthazar rarely goes out without that cat. Right on his shoulder. Sort of like a pirate with a parrot, Grayson snickered.
Eyros is too serious and stuff for such a thing now, Ryder agreed.
And what about Bone Bear? BB is always getting in his bed. Waiting for daddy to come home, Grayson snickered some more.
Too true.
“You are speaking some more. I can barely hear it. Twittering and some words.” Elgar turned his head to the side as if listening. “Interesting.”
“Nothing gets past you,” Ryder said. “There are quite a few things that will be different in the future.”
“You truly come from the future?” Elgar asked.
“Yes,” Ryder said.
“I suppose that makes sense. The way you speak. The way you dress. The fact that you are… here,” Elgar said quietly. “You would have to come from the future.”
“Because we’re both dead? Or we are dead in this time,” Ryder clarified.
“And you aren’t mad or trying to kill us,” Elgar added. “So that is very different, Weryn.”
Ouch, Grayson winced.
But not untrue or unfair, Ryder said.
Ryder inclined his head. “I don’t remember everything, but I do know I was very… out of my head.”
“We all have been,” Elgar said. “The War poisoned us. Perhaps we were poisoned before to some extent, but all the blood, the killing, it has warped us. I do not like it. I would have it stop.”
That’s a very real understanding of the situation, Grayson said.
“Yes, and it will stop, Elgar. It is nearly done,” Ryder said carefully as he pulled on a shirt.
Elgar’s sharp, silver eyes were on Ryder’s face. “How does it end?”
Does he mean the War or himself? Or more like Eyros? Grayson asked.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to be a bit more specific,” Ryder stalled for time.
“My Master has brought us all here to Destiny. He has closed all the gates. We are locked in and everyone else is locked out. Yet my Master speaks to you–looks into your minds–and you are from the future, which means that this plan to keep us safe doesn’t work,” Elgar deduced.
Ryder said nothing as he pulled his boots on.
“Is there a traitor in our midst?” Elgar pressed.
Grayson hopped to face Elgar as the Eyros Vampire drew closer. Elgar’s hands closed convulsively into fists and then released as he spoke of someone betraying them.
“I do not know,” Ryder answered honestly.
“How could you not know?” Elgar’s voice rose, but he pushed it down at the end with difficulty.
“Because I died before all of this happened. I have no memory of it,” Ryder answered, also honestly.
“But it’s clear that you know something about what happens next! Is Eyros not in this future with you? Has he not told you of our fate?” Elgar insisted.
Elgar was very close and he was clearly highly agitated.
The strain of the War had him pulled taut as a bow strong.
And Ryder was Weryn. Weryn was an enemy.
Someone who had killed countless of his friends and family.
But Ryder did not tense up. He showed no agitation himself nor aggression.
He regarded Elgar with empathy, which had a shudder running through the younger Vampire.
“Will you not answer me? Why do you look at me with such–such pity?” Elgar’s voice was harsh, hard, filled with pain. Ryder reached for Elgar, but the Eyros Vampire twisted out of the way, crying out, “No! NO!”
Ryder held his hands up to show he meant no harm. “I’m sorry, Elgar. Of course, you would not want comfort from me. I’m sorry.”
“Why would you offer me comfort? You ripped through our ranks… you took many fledglings from me… you relished their blood.” Elgar was panting as he said these things.
Ryder lowered his head in shame. Grayson fluttered up to his shoulder and perched there. He leaned his small, feathery body against Ryder’s cheek.
It’s okay, Grayson soothed. It’s okay. It’s the past. Elgar forgives you. He already forgave you. If this was the Elgar in the future, he wouldn’t reject you–
But maybe he should, Ryder said darkly.
No, Ryder–
It’s all right. I am not going to withdraw from the world out of shame. I must help shape the future. Make it better. It is the only way to make amends, Ryder said firmly.
“Elgar, all I can tell you,” here Ryder paused, “is that there is hope in the future that is not here now.”
Elgar’s eyes had been dancing between them again. He studied how Grayson cuddled against Ryder’s cheek and shoulder.
“You are different now,” Elgar’s voice sounded hoarse as if he’d been screaming. “Why could you not be this way before?”
“Because,” Ryder let out a sigh, “because I had to become a different man. A better man. There is nothing I can say or do to undo what I have done. But, for as little as it may be worth, know that I wish I could.”
“But you have time traveled!” Elgar pointed out. “You could–”
Ryder was already shaking his head. “I am changed, because of what I did. Because I died. Because I was reborn. Because of all of it. Undoing that would mean undoing the current me so…”
“So it cannot be changed?” Elgar asked dully. “And whatever’s coming can’t be changed either?”
Ryder slowly shook his head.
“At least, you are being honest,” Elgar said, “and that is surprisingly rare.”
“I wish I could tell you something else,” Ryder admitted.
“But you do not know everything that’s to come.” Elgar stood up taller. “You’ve admitted it yourself.”
“No, but–”
Elgar continued on, “So there may still be something I can do to ease my Master’s pain. And nothing will stop me from doing that.”