Time: Concurrent with "Howling of Wolves: The Immortals"
All evening Jim Ellison felt like a major thunderstorm was gathering to play light show in his head. The pressure made his eyes feel like someone is trying to push them inwards, and a heavy sense of WEIGHT had been on his back since he came home from the department.
Slamming the book he was trying to read down onto the coffee table, he growled at his partner in the kitchen, "Damn it, Sandburg, can't you turn the music down for once?" His face was transformed into an ugly mask of disquiet.
Puzzled, Blair turned to stare blankly at Jim. "Excuse me, Jim, but there isn't any music playing. Not here, anyway." Blair was surprised that his reply was so reasonable, considering the fact that he's been feeling out-of-sorts all evening. [Must be that flu bug that's been going around, dammit] he thought to himself. He waited for his tea-water to boil. He could use something soothing.
"Fuck that!" The Sentinel flew off the couch and was most of the way to the stereo, ready to kill it, when he realized the jungle drums were NOT coming from the stereo. "What the...?" He slammed a hand on the top of it, then clapped his hands over his ears. The drums just got louder.
Blair turned off the heat under the water, then rushed over to try to help the Sentinel, watching Jim clutch at his ears. "What's happening, man? What are you hearing, Jim?"
Jim grabbed Blair suddenly, staring at him. All he saw were the bleary eyes, and he heard the labored breathing through his mouth as if his sinuses were plugged. Too forcefully, he growled, "What's wrong with YOU? Don't you hear that? What's the matter with you, Sandburg?" But at this last, his voice was tinged with concern as he realized something was really wrong with Blair, too.
Blair felt queasy from whatever hit him, and he wasn't handling Jim's strange behavior very well. "Huh? I don't hear anything but you growling at me, Jim!" He tried to pull away.
"You don't hear drums?" Jim asked, still holding onto him firmly. His eyes were a bit too wild, though.
"No, man! No drums. My ears were ringing, but that's just this damn flu I'm coming down with. NO drums, okay!?"
Jim stared at his partner as if he'd never seen him before. "No wolves? God, you MUST hear the wolves howling, they're so loud!" He let go of Blair suddenly, his hands on his ears again. "Wolves... howling..."
"Huh??" Blair was a bit stunned when, seconds later, Blair began to hear something... on the edge of hearing... a bit like a wolf, perhaps... howling.
The Sentinel froze, then, his hearing dial tuned up. But it did not register a change. He could still hear what was already around him, but louder: Blair's pounding heartbeat and his own, some street noises. The volume of the wolves remained exactly as before. [Finally,] he thought, shaking his head, [I *am* going insane...]
Then his eyes locked onto... something... Slowly, Jim lowered his hands, and reached to take Blair's hand in his. "Sit," he murmured, his eyes still vacant. Slowly they sat where they were on the floor, the Guide staring at his partner, bewildered.
Jim took his other hand. "Shaman," he breathed, closing his eyes... "Guide me there..."
Awed and a little afraid, Blair guessed that their "wolves" were on the spirit plane, and Jim was asking him to help him move into the vision. Hoping his heart didn't leap out of his chest, Blair gulped, closed his eyes, and tried to center himself for the Journey. He gripped Jim's hand, slipping easily into the familiar spaces of their shared mind experiences.
Soon the spirit guides, jaguar and wolf, bounded together through the jungle undergrowth, heading for the Temple. They burst into the clearing at the Temple, but cowered on the fringes. The storm had begun!
Wolves bayed and howled, restlessly moving around the clearing. The Raven was absent, the newcomers noticed. Thunder crashed above, lightning flashed, and the wolves were angry! Edging back into the undergrowth, Jaguar and Wolf retreated a little, taken aback by the raging of the Wolves.
Silver Wolf, his eyes flashing fury, had not seen them, his eyes locked onto the green-gold ones of the Master Stranger Wolf. Three other Stranger Wolves prowled around behind. Other Wolves were more distinct now... Scarred Wolf, close by the left side of Silver Wolf, Thin Wolf close by his right... another Striped Wolf... and... a new one, a Golden Wolf wearing an amulet around his neck, a symbol of a lion's head...
This new one, unlike the others, sat apart, silent, as if sleeping, from all appearances unaware of the others, his eyes closed.
Beside the Jaguar, Blair, in his Wolf Spirit-form, snarled... his fur bristling, his back arched. He didn't like this situation... the Stranger Wolves frightened him, and his anger made him want to fight or flee, he wasn't sure which.
Jaguar purred in the Wolf's ear to calm him down, but he himself was not so calm. The fury sheeting off Silver disturbed him but something kept him there, watching the princely wolf with the others. There was something... frightening about the Strangers, and Jim/Jaguar couldn't help but wonder if the fury was based on fear. Silver, afraid??
He glanced over at the still Golden Wolf, puzzled. Why wasn't he helping Silver? The Strangers were not going to go away, yet there sat Golden, doing nothing! A small growl started up in Jaguar's throat, but he knew he himself could not help Silver. Not yet.
Blair/Wolf whimpered in the back of his throat, trying to restrain his impulses, to stay quietly by Jaguar's side.
Then both observers noticed Golden raising his head slowly, gazing at the melee before him. Then, to their shock, the Golden Wolf turned his shaggy head and looked directly at them, his eyes burning with a cold, violet glow. [You should not be here,] Golden spoke to Jaguar and Wolf. [This is not for mortal eyes.]
Then he looked long at Jaguar as if his silver-violet eyes could pierce the veil of the spirit-image. [You... I know who you are, Sentinel. I see you now.] Then, as the mortals gaped, the wolf of the burnished mane seemed to smile at them. [Fear me not, little ones. And fear not for Silver. He is strong. The little scarred wolf and I protect him.]
Jaguar growled uncertainly. [Who is this Golden Wolf? How does he know me?]
Golden Wolf looked at Timber, Blair's spirit wolf, and his eyes seemed to widen, the violet softening to a silver-lavender. [Shaman...] There was both surprise and delight in his mental voice.
Blair/Timber's ears and tail came up immediately, and he whimpered, a bit surprised by the Golden Wolf's notice, but something about it made his heart pound with excitement... and... arousal??
Golden Wolf looked from one to the other, his demeanor changing to sadness. [Children... you cannot stay.] With that, he lowered his head as if in apology.
And then, suddenly, the mortals were severed from their spirit-vision, their spirit animals sent far away from the Temple. [Shaman, depart from the jungle, return Home,] the voice of Golden Wolf came to them over the great distance. [Awake...]
Two pairs of blue human eyes flew open, and both mortal men, their forearms clasped together, stared at one another, breathing hard. Blair managed to speak first. "Jim what WAS that?? The wolves, Kindred... and the strangers! Golden Wolf... who was HE? We never saw a wolf like him before! And how did he send us back? He called us 'children' - I suppose that's how they look at mortals like us, though he didn't seen angry that we were there. How come Silver, I mean Julian, didn't see us? And what would he have done if he had?"
"Whoa, hold on there, Chief," Jim broke in, pulling his partner over and into his lap, stopping the onslaught of verbiage when the other took a breath. "Easy there, love..." He kissed his forehead as Blair settled down, clinging to Jim's arms. "Let's calm down first, shall we? Then take a look at this?"
Blair's hand was on the middle of his chest. "My heart is pounding."
"Tell me about it... and you were almost hyperventilating there," Jim observed, then made a noise. "Okay, so my heart is racing like a rabbit, too. That was... strange..." He looked down to see his lover staring at him with widened eyes. "What?"
"You were so angry with me before, man," Blair murmured quietly.
Jim immediately pulled the smaller body against his own in contrition. "No, love, it was the pull of the spirit plane. That wasn't me. The Kindred somehow drew us to their... whatever. Some kind of face off, them against whomever those Strangers were. I don't know. I'm so sorry, Blair."
Blair sniffed and hugged Jim tightly, his face against his chest. "It's okay, you were right - the spirit world was drawing us. It... frightens me, man. Why are we having these visions, anyway?"
"Are you still coming down with the flu?" Jim suddenly asked.
His Guide sat up, and looked at him again. "Ah... no, I guess not. That must have been my reaction to what was going on... the pressure in my head and sinuses, on my eyes... weird. And you were actually hearing the commotion!"
"More than that, Chief," Jim sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I thought my head was going to explode and my back cave in. It's no wonder I yelled at you. This isn't good... what if we'd been in public?"
"Golden," Blair said abruptly, then rubbed at Jim's arm. "We never saw the Golden Wolf before, Jim. Who could that be? And Raven was gone."
"Well, patently it was a meeting of... Kindred, I guess, and Frank likely wouldn't be there," Jim replied, getting Blair settled against his side again. "The scarred wolf... I'm guessing that would be Cash, for how close he stuck to Silver."
"Julian," Blair nodded. "And the bald wolf - that would be Daedalus, of course."
"The wolf with stripes... the Kindred in the courtyard that escorted us into the mansion. I think Cash called him 'Michael.' He wore a pinstripe suit," Jim continued thoughtfully. "But, I do believe you're right, Chief. I don't think we've seen the Golden one..."
"Dr. Carr?" Blair asks hopefully. But he already knew the answer. They'd never met this particular Kindred before. He seemed... different from the others, but it was clear he was one of them.
"No, not him," Jim was replying. "I hope... everything is all right," he added, thinking of the fury in the small silver wolf.
"Me, too," Blair answered, snuggling against Jim, his rock against the strangeness in this strange city.
"I'll call Julian in the morning," Jim offered, sighing. It felt so good to have his Guide against him!
Across the wide San Francisco Bay, in a mansion not far from the Golden Gate Bridge, the storm raged on. But the "Golden Wolf" whom the mortals had seen in the spirit vision was mentally split, half his mind trained on the arguments before the Prince, and the protection he had magickally cast to protect the Prince, and the other half of his mind was across that bay, arrowing in on Berkeley.
The Tremere, ignoring his internal warning systems that told him he was running out of this sort of energy, zeroed in on the location of the two mortals who had been drawn into the spirit world because of the outpouring of energies in this particular room. Their psychic power had awed him, for it was multiplied due to the strength of their personal union - interesting! They evidently knew of Kindred... did Julian know them? Strange, they had seemed concerned for the prince, the "silver" wolf. Though this might represent a breach of the Masquerade, likely there was much more going on here than the eavesdropping of two gifted mortals. Thorne would have to approach this lightly, for if Julian already knew about them, they were likely under his protection.
But discovering the mortal with the wolf guide to be a true Shaman! The jaguar he could easily connect with the "psychic detective" his Toreador informant in Seattle had spoken of, but who was this wolf? The bond between Jaguar and Wolf sang of a oneness Thorne knew he had rarely ever experienced in his long life... no, possibly never like this. Jaguar was "Sentinel", but as yet that term did not mean anything to the magus aside from some sort of tribal watchman.
[Little Shaman,] Thorne pondered, returning mentally to the conclave room in the prince's mansion after pinpointing the location of the mortals, [We must get to know one another, you and I...]
The End
