Page 33

Dern

After Mori left for the evening, Ormund settled in next to me.

His errands were wrapped up for now.

Later, I’d ask more questions, but talking about Marshmallow and Graham left me feeling that delightful sort of sleepy that I hadn’t felt in years.

It was the sort of sleepy young lovers felt after rolling around together while trying to make a baby.

If you’d asked me a few days before I’d have said I was too damn old to feel anything like that ever again.

Sharing the story of my boys had left me feeling that way this time, though.

Soon, I’d see them again.

They’d have to go on living their lives over there with their mates and pups, but I’d see them again before it was time for me to move on – the big move on.

Maybe I’d linger between life and get to know my grandchildren. Would the powers that let over there let me? It didn’t matter that night. I still had time to figure it all out. I hadn’t finished what I’d set out to do after all.

I wasn’t sure how long I slept all wrapped up in Ormund’s arms but it must’ve been a long time.

I blinked, feeling lighter than I had in years.

I stretched and nothing popped or crackled.

“Must be a really good morning,”

my wolf chuckled to himself.

I glanced out the window.

The moon was still high in the sky.

It wasn’t even morning yet.

Ormund stirred in his sleep as I swung my legs off the bed and stretched my arms above my head again for good measure.

Maybe whatever doctor ‘Jerk Leem’ gave me was actually starting to work. I stood up and stretched again. My wolf yawned inside his inner sanctum.

“Mate?”

Ormund’s voice reached me, laced with concern.

“I’m just stretchin’,”

I told him, glancing over my shoulder.

My mouth dropped open, and I spun around quickly enough that I landed on my ass. I might’ve cracked my tailbone if I still had one.

There at the foot of the bed was the biggest door I’d ever seen, and someone was whispering behind it. The voices were all too familiar.

Had my parents really waited all this time on me? Wasn’t that a little asinine? Maybe not. I’d wait forever on my boys if they needed me to.

The door wasn’t what made my butt introduce itself to the floor. It was the man laying on the bed, curled up with his head inside Ormund’s ghostly chest.

That man – no the body – that had once been me. I scooted backwards as if it might jump up and start crying for brains like we were in some fucked up zombie movie.

“Mate, it’s okay,”

Ormund said, appearing at my side.

Now that I was dead too he didn’t have to bother with pretending to move like a living man because I had no mortal sensibilities to startle.

“It’s not! I haven’t finished telling them! I haven’t even told Teddy---”

I said but couldn’t finish the thought. “I was supposed to have more time! Damn it!”

“Go now! Go say whatever you need to say and make it quick! That door will take you and there’s nothing left here for you to come back to. I know you don’t believe me now, love, but please try to. Once you go through everything over here will mean so little. You’ll worry about the boys but they’re over there, technically. I’ve seen it happen to other people. The story you didn’t tell isn’t your unfinished business. It won’t be important once you go through that door,”

Ormund said, pulling me up onto my feet.

“Will he even be able to see me?”

I asked, as he shoved me through the outside wall of the building.

“He’s a Cromwell and a Moonscale, mate! Make him see you! I’ll stay here and try to keep the people behind the door quiet!”

“Will Kaladar be there?”

I asked, remembering our old friend that healer, but Ormund was already pushing me again.

A breeze caught me and as soon as I wondered how I’d navigate my way to the B&B I stood at the foot of Teddy and Othoni’s bed. They were all tucked in under blankets that smelled freshly laundered and both of them had wet hair as if they showered recently.

“Teddy,”

I whispered but the oaf didn’t stir a bit. “Teddy Moonscale!”

“Huh?”

Othoni grunted and sprang up on his feet ready to fight me.

“You can’t punch me now, kitten,”

I chuckled, trying to break the news gently because the jaguar shifter seemed like the sort of man who would take the news of anyone’s death pretty damn hard.

“Oh, I am so sorry,”

Othoni frowned.

“Don’t be,”

I waved him off. “Finally woke up without sounding like someone’s trying to break me apart like a chicken wing. I don’t think I have a lot of time, though. I’m still here. I’m still focused but…”

“Teddy,”

Othoni said, dropping back onto the bed and shaking his mate awake.

“Again?”

Teddy grinned and stole a kiss before he caught me lurking in his peripheral vision.

“Shit!”

Teddy leapt up.

“I don’t have a gun and you’re naked!”

I said, pointing at his crotch.

“Like that matters,”

Teddy said.

“Teddy, his door is here. Calm down. Please, calm down. Here,”

Othoni swung his legs out of bed. “Let me turn on the light. That’ll make everything make more sense. This isn’t the time for us to lose our heads. We can do that later if we need to.”

“Want me to give you two a minute to get dressed?”

I asked him.

“We’re fine,”

Othoni shook his head. “Unless you want us to get dressed.”

He tied a sheet around his waist and a second later the light came on over our heads. I let out a long, slow sigh. We could all see in the dark and it seemed strange to bother with such ‘civilized’ protocols now that I left my body lying like a scooped-out shell back in the hospital.

“The quicker is probably better,”

I admitted. “I finally get to go be with Ormund again – for real this time. On the same plane of existence and not just in the overlap. Shit! There are things to tell Mori too!”

“He’s just down the hall. I can get him,”

Othoni offered.

“Not yet or… Actually, go warn him and I’ll come to you two in a moment, okay, kitten?”

“Okay,”

he nodded and shot his mate a look that said, ‘be nice.’ I wasn’t worried if Theodore Moonscale was nice to me or not. I had what he wanted. I didn’t have to tell him anything. In the grand scheme of things, our promise was kept. I could already see his future changing and shifting around. He’d been saved from his fate of being a cranky old bastard who never met his mate and all it took was shooting him a couple of times. One day he’d appreciate that. Hell, I’d take a bullet to the arm every day if that’s what I had to do to meet Ormund. Though, I underwent a bit more than that to when fate tickled our balls.

None of us spoke as Othoni pulled on one of Teddy’s shirts. The jaguar shifter wasn’t short by any stretch of the word, but he wasn’t dragon sized. Teddy’s shirt hung just over the tops of his knees as he slipped out of the room. Teddy arched a brow in my direction.

“Astral is gonna be pissed off,”

were the first words out of his mouth.

“That’s pretty normal for him, honestly. He’s a Warden after all,”

I chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ll say goodbye to him before I go. It’s a shame I didn’t get to the full details on everything. I knew everyone always thinks they have more time than they do but I thought I did. You will too one day. One far away day.”

“How did you know my carrier? Don’t tell me it was part of their open relationship phase,”

Teddy said, leaning back against the padded headboard with the sheet pulled up to his navel like I hadn’t seen a million dicks in my life.

“No,”

I shook my head. “I’m gay as the night is dark, Teddy and not for your sire either. Ormund would’ve never put up with another alpha in the bed. Hell, I wouldn’t have put up with another omega in the bed. Poly people can do whatever they want but we’re not poly people. I met your mother because I sought her out. Grady Moore’s breeding farms were horrible and they harmed a lot more people than folks realize today. I could talk forever on how we came to the point that we met her but let’s just say Grady Moore was a sly S.O.B. because plenty of people were hunting him down.

There aren’t a lot of phoenixes on Earthside. There are even less here on the stateside part of things. But he managed to nab one. No, not my kid before you say that. Hell, he wasn’t even related to us but he descended from the healer who ensured I lived. He was saved that night that Lotus convinced Lee Knight to turn himself into the Hemlocks. She freed him and we were able to ensure he healed up as much as anyone ever can from something like that. His grandkid is the bird who runs the B&B you’re staying at. We’d been hunting him a while because we’re part of a special group. Don’t ask about the group right now. That’s something I need to tell Mori but anyway, we were hunting Grady Moore partially to save the world, partially to save Kaladar’s decedent because he died in one of the many wars with the wolves we had back home. So, Kaladar wasn’t around to do it himself.

Eventually, Ormund sought out your carrier because she was the one who saved him. He felt indebted to her and she refused to take any reward. We both know how rich her family was and with your sire around by that time, she wanted for nothing. So, when Ormund insisted, she said that if some day in the future her family needed help he could pay it forward.

It’s because of Mori that I knew you needed help at all. Mori has a big fate and that’s a pain in the ass. Believe me, I know it’s a pain in the ass because Ormund and I had big fates. You and Othoni do too, if you choose to take that path with Mori. But I started reading anything I could for the people around Mori. I needed to know who his allies were and who would plant their fat asses in his way. Your mate was there, and I had the realization of who he belonged with. Only you were an angry, grieving asshole on the fast track to spending a lot of time alone and asleep. It’s selfish, though. I helped you because I’m selfish. I mentioned his dad around you because I knew you’d reach out to anyone who might help you understand death. I did it because Ormund wasn’t ready to move on for good until all his debts were repaid and because Mori will need muscle. You have a lot of emotions that are bigger than your draconic ass but you’re also protective of those you care about. He’s going to do a lot of good but he needs someone who will help him fight or at least make others afraid to try to fight him.”

“Uh… Dude, they should be afraid to fight him. He’s magical and the spirits like him. That’s fucking scary, okay?”

I laughed despite the serious nature of the conversation, but Teddy wasn’t finished speaking.

“I’m glad my carrier helped all those people. I’m glad you saved your friend’s kid, but you do know if you just told me, it would’ve been easier, right?”

Teddy frowned at me.

“It would’ve been but it’s not the way things are done. Fate would’ve noticed me helping Mori and it might’ve made things more difficult. Fate was already being an asshole by not showing me who Mori’s mate is.”

“Do you think the universe is really like that?”

he asked me.

“I know it is,” I sighed.

“Knock, knock,”

Mori said outside the door as if he’d been listening for the perfect moment to interrupt us.

“Come in, you two,”

I sighed and sank onto the window seat.

Mori was all wrapped up in one of the fluffy robes the B&B offered to its guests. He perched on the edge of the bed while Othoni stayed on his feet like he might need to pounce someone at any moment. He and Teddy shared a look that made me wonder if the jaguar eavesdropped over their mating link. It was perfectly fine if he did but I hadn’t even thought of it.

“I’m so sorry, Dern,”

Mori spoke at last.

“Don’t be. I’m sorry I didn’t get to tell you everything. There were so many people I erased from the living to make places better for folks. Ormund too. Though, I’m the one with it in my nature,”

I sighed. “I thought I had more time. I thought if this happened before I finished I’d just stick around and finish up but I don’t want to, Mori. I’m sorry. I’m ready to open that door and find out what comes next. I want to see Marshmallow and Graham. I want to find out if my parents are still over there.”

“Go,”

Mori whispered. “You don’t owe us anything. I’ll write the story that I know and that will be enough to ensure both of you are remembered.”

“Thank you, Mori,”

I said, trying not to frown. I’d forgotten about the book idea. It was never about the book. I hoped I had more time to prepare Mori. “I still have a few things I need to try to explain. It’ll be so much easier if you expect it.”

“Expect what?” he asked.

“The visit. They’ll pull you right into wherever their little grove is the first time. Right out of your body. Usually it happens during the changing of the seasons or on full or new moons, from what I’ve heard.”

“Who, Dern? Who’s going to do that to me?”

Mori blinked and Othoni moved closer to him ready to fight whoever might try to astrally kidnap his best friend.

“They don’t really have a name. I’ve always called them the postcard men because after the first time the missions always came on postcards. You can ignore them if you want but then they send you a postcard about how badly things ended because you weren’t there. Most of the folks helping out aren’t even from Earthside. It’s so rare that they pick anyone new that most planets never even hear of them.”

“Missions to do what?”

Mori asked.

“Everything will fit right in with your business. They’ll even pay you. They always paid us anyway,” I sighed.

“Paranormal investigating?”

Mori blinked.

“It’s different for everyone. I’ve only met a handful of people who work with them. None of them do exactly what I did. I was their hitman, but you won’t be. Probably not anyway. The universe is evolving like everywhere eventually does. They want to take gentler approaches, but I don’t think you should do it alone. I would’ve said to take your parents but they have so many kids and a territory they run more or less but you have them. You have Mori and Teddy. You’ll have your mate too when you meet him. No, I still don’t know who he is. For that, I apologize.”

“Don’t,”

Mori shook his head. “Magic doesn’t owe me early answers. Though, I’m glad you waited to tell me about this. Had you told me while still alive I might have written you off as senile like everyone else has.”

“I know,”

Dern frowned. “I was going to tell you the whole story. I was going to tell you the highlights at least. Then end with how Ormund met Lotus. Then I was going to die. Take that lesson with you everywhere. You always have less time than you think you do and everything will take longer than you think it will.”

“Will you visit my carrier before you go?”

Mori asked.

That was Mori for you. He was always thinking about everyone else.

“No,”

I shook my head. “I’m going to see Astral one more time and say goodbye to the friend Lotus freed then I’m going. No, I don’t want you or anyone there when I go through my door. I’ve always liked my privacy and ask for it one more time. Have fun, you three. Life will feel so incredibly long some days but everything you love will disappear the moment you blink and then it’s all over before you can exhale.”

I met Teddy’s gaze. “You already know that and for the love of all that’s sacred, get that fucking tattoo fixed already.”

They laughed and I took advantage of the moment to slip out of the wall. I wanted to remember them laughing and learning to make the most of bad things. The worlds were filled up with them and you had to turn them into something beautiful if you wanted any chance of making it to your final door sane.