I had been using the Akashic Networking site, it was kind of like a site for the Other Kin, the feys and other humanoid creatures like that. In this day and age of technology it was our version of Facebook and Twitter. Finding out about the Akashic Records and the Akashic Netword intrigued Colby. I mean now that he was involved in this world, the world I tried to keep hidden from my coworkers, news about the mortal pagan and her mortal consort looking for a Hound because of the bet between Abastor and The Morrigan, it was all a little too much for my liking. Seth Rollins was fighting justice in the Otherworld society, but was he mad, stupid or just plain insane for doing this for a woman he didn't know at all?
"So, where are you looking tonight?" Jon asked as I was scanning my phone while carrying my things from the arena.
It was the second night of the search, and it was after the SmackDown taping. The three Shield members were heading out to a rental they shared, I was heading ou to the one that I had, which wasn't far from theirs.
"Twenty miles from here, north. Since the three of you don't have anything for tomorrow, I figured Colby and I could go at it tonight while you two head to the next show." I said as I opened the boot of the rental for their things. "Could you take Colby's and my stuff with you? We'll meet you there."
"Why at night?" Joe asked as he hefted his stuff in there.
"Hounds only come out at night. The fey use them to hunt for the souls that have died in the night, but only those with special skill to harness the Hounds are able to do so." I said as Jon put his things in the rental. "The Seelie, those of the light and descendants of the Tuatha De Dannan, don't. But still, it's only the most skilled that can harness a Hound, fey or not."
"Harness them, with what? Do they have a saddle?" Jon cracked at me.
"No, that's for the steeds, the horses that the Hunt rides on. It's more like bonding of the souls. They are not pets, they are weapons. Colby is bound to the sword because it was a gift from the gods, but earning the bond of the Hound falls to the magic weilder." I felt my hand come up to Thor's Hammer around my neck.
"But you're human. How are you going to do that?" Joe asked.
"If I can't then I'll die that night and Colby will go on living. What's one pagan life for a Believer?" I asked knowing that pagans and peace loving Wiccans were the bane of the Church, who still sought to eradicate the existence of Otherworld beings, even when shown that the old pagan beliefs were real, that the gods and goddesses were closer to their people than the Christian god. But still, there was that war that could kill either side from hate.
A hate that I was in the middle of with Colby Lopez, fighting for The Morrigan.
"Believer?" Colby asked as he put his stuff in the rental.
"Honey, it means a Christian. Witches and pagans, we got our gods, but with the way the world is right now, you are risking a lot to aid me in this task." I looked at him apologetically, knowing that there was stigma coming from all around us at all times.
Jon and Joe were willing to go on ahead of us. That meant leaving Colby and I to drive twenty miles north, closer to our destination, closer to our goal. Or closer to our death if that meant anything.
"Why is everyone I meet calling this thing Bone Cutter?" Colby asked.
"A lot of the Norse give names to their weapons, shields and axes. It gives the weapon power." I said turning down a country road at night, this time heading northeast. "Like Thor's hammer is called Mjolnir. You give something a name, you give it power."
Going to the Moors was a tricky deal. We were in the middle of nowhere, even in the countryside where there weren't a soul to be seen. No really, I didn't even see a fey or anything like that. In the crossroad of two country roads, surrounded by hills and long grass with wild flowers, it was a cold night. We were at the crossroads of our quest.
Colby was standing next to me. My hair was flapping around as I rubbed my Mjolnir pendant. I was trying to think, trying to hope that everything I had found was right and that this would be the last night. Colby didn't say anything as his thumb rubbed the hilt of Bone Cutter, right over the red jewel that was at the center of it. Waiting was hard, like waiting for Death to show up as it were.
"So, what do we do now?" Colby asked. I opened my eyes and turned to look at him. "Do we go looking."
I motioned to around us. "We're at a country crossroad, where Hounds lurk for the souls. We're just waiting on a soul." Glancing behind Colby I nodded. "There's something."
The soul was a silver transparent thing, a woman, that looked to be like one of those old black and white actresses. She was looking down, wearing a long dress and carrying a bouqet of flowers in her hands. Colby went for his sword but I grabbed his wrist, stopping him.
"Don't, she isn't a threat yet. I don't even know if she's a soul or something worth worrying about." I said. "Listen, listen very carefully."
Hounds were silent, but you could still hear them. Atwood had told me that you could hear them before you see them. Usually invisible, it still made noise. It will only be seen if it lets you. And I could hear it, I could hear the panting breaths of a beast, a monster that could instill fear into the coldest soul. It's howl could chill the blood in any living person, it was something you do not mess with willingly.
And the howl made Colby cringe, making him involuntarily shiver as the spirit came closer to us. Through the veil she looked up, and I could feel the energy come out of me, like she was sucking everything I had in me. I knew this was something down right wrong. She wasn't a good spirit, a benign spirit that was going to be taken to the Otherworld, she was being hunted because she did something wrong. I couldn't see her face through the silver/white veil but I could see her charcoal black eyes piercing at us. It was like she was oblivious to her fate that night.
"What the hell is going on?" Colby said, coming to stand in front of me, drawing Bone Cutter as the spirit started to advance on us, a little faster than the last.
"That thing was once human, but it isn't now." I said putting my arm out, keeping him back. "It preys on those that are weak, the living I would say, it feeds off their energy, their fear just like it had done when it was alive. Just don't move, don't run at it or away. It doesn't know that we're being hunted."
And I was right.
Just as she was about to come right at us something invisible launched out of the high grass behind us, it's howl and snarl were so loud it could split ear drums. It had jumped us, right over us, the woosh of wind moving our hair as this invisible force, not so invisible to the spirit woman, landed on her. And in the next moment she was on the ground the sound of ripping evident as a large claw mark appeared on her dress. The spirit tried to get up but the invisible Hound had pinned her to the ground. Colby went to get involved but I put my hand on his chest.
"No, this has to happen. She needs to move on from hurting the living." I said. "Wait, watch, learn."
The woman continued to scream, to howl as did the Hound. Finally she just disappeared into a wisp of smoke/fog or what have you, leaving this realm for the next.
"That lead you followed, who were you talking to?" There were giant paw prints in the ground that started to turn towards us.
"It wasn't so much from someone else, but a dream I had of this country lane. Those two signs," I pointed the Hopter Lane and Cope Road signs. "I looked up the location and...just decided to come out here."
"Then what the hell is in front of us?" Colby pulled the sword out, ready to use it on the invisible force that was staring us down.
Instead I came to stand in front of him as this woosh of hot air hit me right in the face. It, the Hound, was standing directly in front of me. Closing my eyes for a moment, I took a deep breath and centered myself, easing my beating heart. Or was that Colby's as the creature started nearing us.
"What are you going to do?" I heard my companion ask.
"I am trying to calm myself, to not be scared. It has already sent a wrong doer to the Otherworld, what's to say it won't try to kill me now."
It, the Hound, slowly started coming into corporeal form. Meaning, we could see it. And it was huge, big, with long teeth, pointed ears and these deathly red eyes. This was a Specral Hound, this was a Hellhound, who would be in a Wild Hunt. I felt my back pressed to Colby's front. Fear still crept into my veins but...what this thing was a killer if we didn't do something, a killer that hunted for lost souls and sent the bad ones to knows where. It was a wild thing, it was not something to idly mess with even on a good night.
"What do we do now?" Colby whispered.
"Well we can't kill it." I responded. "We sort of need it alive."
"How do we get it?"
"I don't know, Rollins." I replied.
Then an idea popped into my head, one big stupid one. I reached out with my right hand, my dominant hand and started inching my way towards it's head.
"What do I call you?" I asked, hand hovering in front of it's head, it's nose letting it smell me. "You remind me of a Warg, you know the dog creature from Lord of the Rings." I said as my hand hovered inchest from the beast's head. "You look like a War Dog."
The Hound made a noise, stepped back from us and then loped off into the night. Now it was just Colby and me in the middle of a country crossroad, alone.
"Okay, what do we do now?" Colby asked as I stepped away from him.
What do we do now, indeed?
