Chapter Eighteen:

What was happening?

Why was her sight leaving her? Was it leaving her? If it were, then why? She’d done nothing that could possibly have endangered it, done nothing but been healed and slept, so what was the problem?!

Growling at the nearest puddle of water, she made her way down the path she’d chosen and stopped when something black floated in front of her face. Looking down, one of her claws was misshapen, and a clump of black fur lay between her feet. Suddenly feeling lost and completely alone, she wanted nothing more than to curl up and die. That which she had never wanted to happen was going completely against her will. not only that, but she felt… empty. As though someone had reached inside of her body and stolen some vital part of her.

She fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs that had chosen to collapse without even consulting her, the nerve of them! Her spine was rigid yet had the droopiness of a noodle in the same labored breath. How dare her body act without her consent! And how dare feet appear in her immediate line of vision!

…hold it…

Feet…?

Looking up with her still-blurring vision, she saw a man looming over her, his features green and brown… no, that was the tree to his left. If the man even had features, she couldn’t see them. Nor could she scent him, which bothered her immensely. She’d been taught to live without her sight and her hearing, but not without her sense of smell. It hadn’t really been covered in her loup garou training, even if only the loup part applied to her now. None of them — as far as she knew — had ever lost their sense of smell, and none ever wished it upon another.

Pain lanced its way through her bones, her nerves, the backs of her eyes… it was like having a tiny leprechaun sitting on her retinas taking an ice pick to the sensitive nerves, as though he wanted to cut her pupils out so he could see the outside for himself. Her ears were the same way, only it was probably the eye leprechaun’s cousin or some sort of relation that banged his hammer against her eardrums. Even her teeth hurt.

She might have made a whine, she wasn’t sure. A shotgun could go off next to her and she wouldn’t have heard it. Lying there on her side, coat matted in mud and her own blood from last night, she used the last of her remaining active brain cells to analyze the loss of her senses, trying to see if it were related to any sort of magical assault, and only one answer came to her as she closed unseeing eyes.

This must be what it was like to die.

His muscles were unraveling from his bones, and his bones were made of mush. His body was covered in mud from the number of times he’d fallen in the past hour, and he might have been bleeding from any number of cuts he’d gotten when battling a bush and losing. He hadn’t the strength to heal even these small paper cuts, too focused was he. Despite all of his pains, all of his discomfort, and even despite his aunt’s violent outbursts, he would continue for the sake of the one he’d come out here to find:

Night.

Eclipse had been searching for her ever since Midnight had left thirteen hours and thirty-two minutes ago… not that he was counting. With all the mud from last night’s rain, any tracks Night may have left were imperceptible, and he’d taken many a wrong turn. She’d merely disappeared, and the only thing that assured him of her existence was the blood she’d left on his sheets. He’d even torn a corner off to carry it in his pocket in case he ever lost the scent, doubling back many times due to his fatigue. He would never so much as think that she was gone.

Had the Lord Falcon gotten to her?

Shaking his head at that last thought, Eclipse refused to think the worst. Even as he stumbled down the hillside to his aunt’s house, falling once again onto his side and forcing himself back up, Eclipse held the slightest hope that maybe Night had already found her way back and was waiting to bombard him with her mind-speech assaults.

Dragging his bare feet and battered body into the house, he was greeted by the glaring gaze of his aunt, the smallest look of sympathy from his uncle, and a look of unrestrained shock from his cousin. Ah, here came the good cop/bad cop interrogation. Even Drew knew it was time for him to sneak away, and he did so just before Aunt Melody let Eclipse know just what was on her mind.

“Look at you! What is it going to take for you to get it through your head that she has her own life? You healed her, she rested, and now she’s left! You yourself said that she’s a rogue, and the truce you two had probably only lasted through the night. She’ll come to you when and if she’s ready! You can’t chase her around like some madman,” she said, her voice growing calmer, “do that, and you’ll be just as bad as that Falcon so-and-so.”

Ouch, that hurt. What made it hurt even more was that she was right. If he’d been smart, he’d have just left her be. His rational mind would have told him to do just as Aunt Melody said: wait for her to choose when and if to return… but his instincts had told him to go after her, to see if she was all right. Maybe, in the process of leaving, her wound had opened again and she could be lying in a ravine somewhere, unbeknownst to him.

He’d told them all about her coming to see him, just before he’d left that morning. Had even given Aunt Melody his sheets to wash after he’d torn the corner off, having wanted to keep a piece of reality to make sure he hadn’t dreamed up the entire encounter.

Not daring to step past the back doormat lest he get scolded for tracking mud into the house, Eclipse merely nodded, “I know, Aunt Melody… I’ll go and clean up now.”

“You’ll do more than that, Eclipse Quentin Rouvel,” his aunt said as she pointed her wooden spoon at him, “you’re going to get some sleep, understand? Werewolf or not, you need sleep, you hear me?”

“Yes, Aunt Melody.”

“Good, now strip right where you are before you get mud everywhere.”

Looking to see if his uncle had anything to add, Eclipse pulled off his T-shirt and dropped his jeans before opening the basement door, tossing his clothes down the stairs, and walking into the house in his underwear, completely accustomed to such treatment from his aunt. If it was anything Aunt Melody hated more than dust and cobwebs, it was dirt or mud being tracked into the house, and it wasn’t only Eclipse she picked on. Uncle Tom had once had to strip down once after gardening, and Drew, too, after he’d wrestled a friend on the grass.

The thought prompted him to go seek his cousin, despite being in only his underwear, “Drew?”

“I’m on the couch,” he said as Eclipse poked his head into the living room, “ah, Mom got to you did she?”

“Yea… she’s good at that. Listen, about last night, I’m sorry I just up and left like that.”

Drew waved it off, “S’all right, I understand why you did it.”

“You… do?”

“Sure. I remember on the way up there when you were talking about the feeling you had when Midnight went to try and go find her. You said it felt like when you see your girl hangin’ off your best friend’s arm, and since I can understand that, then I can understand why you’d be worried about her up and leaving when she’s hurt.”

Eclipse smiled as he let out a sigh, “Thanks, Drew, I’m glad you get it in the way I meant it. I just didn’t want you to think I’d abandoned you.”

“Nah, that’s not something you’d do. Even I know that.”

“Eclipse! Get your butt in that shower before I get your uncle to take the hose to you!”

Grimacing, Eclipse excused himself from his cousin before making his way up the stairs. All he needed was for Night to decide to come back only to see him being hosed down in his underwear by his uncle in the backyard. Muscles protesting the extra movement, Eclipse pushed his body to the bathroom. Turning the water as hot as he could stand it, he decided he hadn’t the energy to stand and shower, so he drew himself a bath instead.

Tossing his underwear into a corner of the bathroom, he sat down in the hot water and let out a contented sigh. For some reason, his brain pushed a memory from when he’d been twelve to the forefront of his thoughts. He’d been taking a bath as he was now, and Drew had walked in on him and seen him shaving his legs. He’d spluttered and nicked himself before getting out of the water, wrapping a towel about his waist, and explained to his cousin that being a loup garou, he had enough hair as it was and preferred having as little as possible when in human form… at least, it had made sense to him at the time.

Drew had joined the swim team after that.

The memory made him smile, for shortly thereafter he’d learned how to control some of his body’s functions, growing hair among them. All he had now were the hairs on his head, eyebrows, and eyelashes. He’d literally shed the rest, and had felt like nothing more than a mangy mutt while doing it. Even Aunt Melody had complained about finding his hair all over place.

Grabbing a washcloth from the side of the tub and some soap, Eclipse started scrubbing as much dirt from his body as he could. He even washed the bottoms of his feet while healing himself of the small cuts and bruises he’d received while searching, which was no easy accomplishment considering how tired he was.

Midnight was close or else he would never have had such energy.

Hauling himself up, Eclipse felt a jolt of power he knew immediately to not be his or Midnight’s. It was so powerful as to make him stumble and hold onto the sink for help. Waiting for it to pass by, Eclipse found himself completely renewed. Confused, he jogged over to his room — sans towel — and looked out the window.

An impermeable wall of rain surrounded them.

A wolf’s grin forced its way onto his face. Oh thanks be to Mother Nature for granting him this downpour of rejuvenation!

Night was out there somewhere. Alone.

Smirk gone, Eclipse dressed himself in sweatpants and reasoned with himself that it would just be utter suicide to try and go out in weather like this. Night could take care of herself, he rationalized. She’d been doing just fine without him for the past several years, so she’d know to crawl under a rock and wait out the storm. Hell, she even liked storms, and she was probably nice and cozy at Balder’s just watching the rain fall, just as Eclipse was.

Why didn’t that comfort him?

Heading shirtless down the stairs, Eclipse had bound his hair back at the nape of his neck so as to keep the stray hairs out of his eyes. He walked into the kitchen, intent on opening the back door to let the cool air in as they always did when it rained. Aunt Melody was in the basement doing laundry, and both Uncle Tom and Drew were in the living room watching TV on the couch.

Removing the latch and opening the wooden door, Eclipse was about to undo the screen door when he realized his eyes were level with something black and mussed. Looking up a little ways, he was met with the nearly-smoldering gaze of one he had not expected to see.

Balder was on their back porch.

It must have taken the elder wolf quit a bit of rationalizing just to force himself onto another’s male’s territory, but considering what he held in his hands, Eclipse found it in his heart to forgive him.

“Are you going to invite me in or aren’t you?”

The gruff voice made Eclipse jump back a step before he stepped aside and let Balder in, “I hate to say this, but please don’t track any mud on the floor… my aunt gets touchy.”

“I can understand that,” he said as the kitchen suddenly seemed too small for the two of them while Balder nodded to the carefully-wrapped bundle in his arms, “I found her out a ways and decided your place was the closer of the two.”

Eclipse nodded, “What happened? Is she sick? What was she like when you found her?”

“Eclipse! What are you doing down here? Get back up to b…!” Aunt Melody stopped as her eyes took in the very large, very male being that was Balder, “…w-who is this?”

“Aunt Melody, I present to you Balder, the banished uncle of the one I am to marry. Balder, this is my aunt. Now, I hate to cut introductions so short, but methinks a warm bed would be the ideal place for his niece to be at the moment.” Eclipse said as he gestured to the bundle in Balder’s arms.

“I’ve got some sheets straight out of the dryer that she can lie on. Come on downstairs and we can keep her nice and warm.” Aunt Melody suggested as she bustled down the stairs with two confused loup garou males in her wake.

Eclipse shrugged, “After you, I suppose. We can talk better once we get down there. The danger must not be too high if you’re not growling at us.”

“Danger? She’s not in any real danger, Eclipse,” Balder said as he went down the stairs carefully, trying to leave no trace of his soaked clothes, “just a danger to her state of being, really.”

“Such as?”

“See for yourself.”

Aunt Melody had lain down some sheets and even provided an old pillow that Balder thanked her for as he lay his niece down and Eclipse finally got a good look at what the problem was:

Night was still in wolf form, that much he could tell, but patches of fur were missing and many of her bones were misshapen. They were twisted in a way that resembled no existing animal, and it took much of his imagination and logic to piece together that she was still a wolf.

“Dear Lord, what happened to the poor girl?”

Balder huffed as he sat down beside his niece, who seemed to be unconscious from the pain, his Scottish accent returning now that no immediate danger presented itself, “Her body is rebelling against her just as she rebelled against it. It will all be over before long, but we’ll have to be even more careful when it comes to hiding her. A black she-wolf has over a hundred places to hide, but…”

“She can stay here, then. We can keep a good eye on her.” Aunt Melody said proudly, having raised two boys with minimal help from her husband.

“I appreciate your offer, but…”

“Who said I was offering? I don’t know much about what’s going on, but I do know this: my sister asked her son to marry your niece. As far as I’m concerned, anyone Harmony recommends is okay by me. Then there’s Eclipse, too. When he marries your niece, that’ll make us family, and family — both this one and any other loup garou pack from what I’ve heard — take care of one another. End of discussion.”

Balder blinked and Eclipse thought the older man looked torn between laughter and tears… the former won as a chuckle escaped him, “Now that reminds me of my own mother, Nina. Fiery lass to be sure, but ye’d never know it from looking at her.”

Aunt Melody smiled as she excused herself to go make lunch for all of them, leaving Eclipse and Balder with the woman who was to unite them in bonds of family, “Is there any way we can comfort her?”

“Aye, there is,” Balder nodded as he reached out to stroke one of Night’s bent ears, “her brother could do somethin’ about pain, but good luck gettin’ him o’er here.”

“But she’s not really banished, right? So family can still accept her as living.”

“Ah, but they were told to ignore that fact.”

Eclipse spluttered over this, “How?! Her great-grandparents are the Alphas of the pack!”

“Actually, that might change. The challenges are startin’ up at next month’s full moon, so we might be seeing a new alpha pair. Of course, there are some rumors that say the Lord Falcon himself will come for the challenge. If it’s true, then he has to be stopped from takin’ over the loups garous, there’s no question about it.”

“How do you stop a guy like that? It’d be near-impossible.”

“I’m sure someone could,” Balder said as he looked to his niece and then back to Eclipse, “certainly any man worth my niece’s time could. Now wouldn’t that be a mighty prize to take home? Not only would you be the Alpha, but ye’d have a great bitch by yer side. One who knows her own people.”

Eclipse blinked at what Balder was suggesting, “Are you saying I should enter the Alpha Challenge?!”

“That’s exactly what I’m sayin’, and ye’re gonna do it, aren’t ye?” Balder asked, dark brown eyes piercing the younger loup garou’s soul.

Sighing, Eclipse merely nodded, “Yes, of course. The Prophecy says so.”

“Ye’re a good lad. Let any harm come to my niece, however, and ye’ll be feelin’ the end of a good pointy piece of silver.”

Eclipse had to think on Balder’s ‘proposition’, and he hoped not all of Night’s family was like this. If they were, however, he could understand where she got it from.

This would take time to get used to. A lot of it.