16. Leviathan
LEVIATHAN
The pounding knock at the door roused me from sleep.
Groaning, I rolled over, checking the clock by the bed.
Six in the morning? I sighed, rubbing my eyes.
I’d gone out running until almost three, desperate to burn off some of the excited energy after my time with June.
My wolf had been overjoyed to have made love to her.
I was too, but beneath it was a faint trace of guilt.
I’d spent a hundred years trying to find Naphele, and I thought I now had, but the more I got to know June, the more I realized she was her own person, a wholly formed individual.
A powerful part of my subconscious felt terrible for even trying to pursue her, given I’d been after a totally different woman.
By the time I’d come home to crawl in bed, I’d begun to think of myself as an asshole.
When I realized I hadn’t thought of Naphele once while I was inside June, the shame had nearly drowned me.
I had been wholly and completely with June, and all thoughts of my old mate had vanished.
It had been exciting and exhilarating, but then it had struck me, and everything changed.
I’d made June feel awkward too, so I was a jackass in more ways than one. The guilt was almost crippling.
Bang-bang-bang.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered. “Hang the hell on!’
I tugged on some pajama bottoms and shoes, then trudged to the door. The frigid air blew in as I swung it open, chilling my bare chest. Rainier strode past me, rubbing his hands up and down his arms.
“You could have come to the door sooner. It’s cold as shit out there,” he said as I closed the door.
“I’m sorry,” I said, sarcasm and grogginess lacing my voice. “I’m not used to some asshole knocking on my door before the sun comes up.”
Ignoring me, Rainier reached into his jacket and pulled out an ancient-looking piece of paper, shaking it triumphantly.
“What’s that?” I asked, suddenly wide awake and curious.
He gave me a knowing grin. “Something that might be better than modern technology when it comes to discovering if June really is Naphele reincarnated.”
“Huh?” I narrowed my eyes, unsure what he meant.
Rainier knelt beside my fireplace and tossed in some logs on the remnants of the fire. The wood stirred up the dying embers and a tiny flicker of flame kindled, licking around the logs. He shut the fire grate and took a seat on the couch.
“I know I said I’d try to get access to the blood records, but before I did, I remembered an old story my grandmother told me a long time ago.
” He held the paper up again. “A story about a type of ritual you could do to trace back all the lives a shifter has lived. Centuries ago, people used it to find the true nature of a person. It was mostly a thing done by indigenous tribes in the Americas as well as areas in Asia. It was passed down for generations but fell out of favor a few hundred years ago.”
I sat opposite him, trying to keep my voice level. “Are you going to tell me what the hell you’re talking about?”
“Sorry,” he said, gingerly running his fingers down the paper. “I was thinking we could do this ritual and truly find out if June is Naphele. It would leave no doubt at all. You could be positive.”
“The blood tests and genetic markers will do that once we cross-reference them with Naphele’s. This seems pointless,” I said, gesturing to the paper.
Rainier sighed. “The blood we have from Naphele is over a hundred years old. There’s no way to know that whatever is on file at the Shifter Registration Center in the State Capitol won’t be degraded.
Hell man, the sample they digitally uploaded may not even be hers.
Some lab tech might have accidentally switched it.
This would give you a better answer. Neither option is foolproof, but this is going to get us closer to the truth. ”
A lot of years had passed by since Naphele’s death.
Filing systems had come a long way in the last thirty or forty years, and before that it wasn’t as precise.
He had a good point. What if we did check, and it told me June wasn’t Naphele reincarnated, when in fact she was?
If a ritual could prove it, then I could stop residing in my wolf form all the time.
I could fully rejoin the world. I could age.
I could live a full life with the woman I loved.
“What does it require?” I said after rolling the idea around in my head.
“A fresh sample of blood, a lot of spell recitation, some, uh, pharmacological ingestion. A few other things, but the biggest is the blood. It’s supposed to be taken less than a week before the ritual. Otherwise, I would have tried to use whatever she had on file at the state.”
Humans did love trying to keep track of things they didn’t fully understand.
It made sense, but I didn’t like the idea of asking June to open her veins to give a sample.
Any person would be hesitant to do something like that without a really damn good explanation.
Though, if I could prove it, then I could make June my mate.
It would tamp down Eugenia’s ambitions and stabilize Hidden Grove.
“Are there any downsides?” I asked. “Did your grandmother say anything about side effects?”
Rainier’s smile dimmed a bit. “She always said the ritual was mostly safe, but, well, not everyone is a reincarnation.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“Some people are what’s called fresh souls.
They have no past lives. If the ritual is done on someone like that, then there could be issues.
There is a lot of magic involved that I don’t fully understand, but the blood holds their DNA, and the magic of the ritual would be intertwined with it.
Even with it being outside their body, there’s a connection, and it would create an anchor to the afterlife.
They would go on a sort of vision walk or something too.
After an experience like that, they could grow severely depressed or paranoid, begin to see things and experience things that aren’t real, psychosis, stuff like that. ”
“We aren’t doing it,” I said, blurting the words out before I could even think. “I won’t endanger June. We’ll do it the other way, and hope for the best.”
“Hey, I know this is tough,” Rainer said, “but shouldn’t we try to use the most accurate test? You’ve been searching for this woman for a century. Do you want to let that go to chance?”
For a few seconds, I wondered if he might be right. The ritual might be the best bet, but again, if there was any danger at all, I wouldn’t put June through it.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
Rainier gave me a probing look. “Look, I’m not trying to be an asshole here, but once and for all, do you really think June is Naphele? It’s okay to say you’re wrong.” He rolled his eyes and blew out a breath. “It’s also okay to like this woman if she’s not.”
“I know that,” I said, doing my best not to lash out in anger. “That’s not what this is about. It’s about being sure. And yes, I still think she’s Naphele. Why else would she have mentioned the flowers in her sleep?”
Rainier laughed. “Hell, maybe she’s a nature lover. You’re putting a lot of credence into something that could be a coincidence.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re doing the blood test, and that’s final,” I said, and chopped my hand down through the air like a knife. “No ritual. It’s too dangerous.”
Rainier looked crestfallen, but I didn’t care. I’d never forgive myself if I hurt June in some way. I’d rather never find Naphele again than to damage someone like that. We’d figure it out. I’d lasted a century, and I was sure I could last longer if necessary.