Temporal Illusion
A/N; Please read the message in bold at the top of my profile regarding updates. Please enjoy.
Chapter 5; An Old Soul's mind
Sete leaned up in the saddle of his horse, pressing it to higher speeds as he raced towards the high walls that protected the Temple of Ra from the biting sand storms of the Egyptian desert. As he rode he thought back over the last few years. Ever since the memories had come to him in his dreams he'd been searching the world over for his old friend. He'd checked the place that Sete himself had hidden him away but found it empty so instead of searching for the Vampire he had searched for the one Thierry would hunt for. Hana of the Three Rivers Tribe. The search had led him across the whole of the continent to the far western reaches of the world and to the gentle sea and to the Land of the Gods. The merciless deserts of Egypt.
He had finally found her in one of the Temples of the Gods, a lowly Priestess but he hadn't been the only one to find her. His own fate seem intertwined with the Beast as he had called her many times before. The first of the Vampires. His sister in one of his lives but a life that she had killed him in. The Beast had found Hana too and her pets had found Sete and died on the end of his sword but he didn't pretend to be able to stand against the Beast. He had done so before and fatally failed but perhaps this time he could spirit Hana off into the night until he could find Thierry.
But he'd failed at that idea as well but he had to try once more. What was the good in remembering being Ryn if he couldn't fight for what Ryn had loved? He burst into the Temple's grounds and reigned in his horse but didn't bother to tie it up as he jumped off and dashed into the buildings searching for the Old Soul that Thierry was destined to love for eternity and yet forced to watch be murdered time and again by the bane of their existence. He searched room after room until he found her but his heart almost stopped when he saw her pinned to the wall by a man that it took Sete a moment to recognise. There in front of him, tearing out a girl's throat, Hana's throat, was Thierry himself.
Sete drew his sword before he could think about it. He'd never managed to reach Hana in time before and had only been able to find a body left behind in Maya's wake but here in front of him was Thierry draining the blood from Hana's neck. "Thierry." Sete breathed out quietly in shock but it was loud enough. Thierry turned to look at him and frowned at him. "What have you done?"
Before Sete could get up the sense to raise his sword Thierry was inches from his face, his one hand over Sete's wrist and the other against his chest. He applied pressure to Sete's wrist and the bones there crumbled and shattered causing Sete to groan as pain shot through him. Sete couldn't even think to struggle as Thierry sunk his teeth into his neck and drained him.
As he died all he could think about was what had happened to Thierry to change him like this.
Harry rasped in air and threw himself up colliding with a body that had been hanging above him. The first thing he realised was that Sete was screaming in mental agony within him but as the rest of him formed around Sete, absorbing another of the screaming lifetimes within this body, his training kicked in and in the confusion focused only on his immediate survival and there were too many people around him. All around the bed, filling the darkness with small movements.
Harry rolled out away from the other person sitting on the side of the bed and landed on the floor. He dodged past people but already knew that the door was out of reach for him so headed for the corner where at least he could put up a fight without being killed from behind. As he leaned into the corner he braced himself but was surprised when he felt a warm soothing sensation flood his mind and everything rushed back to him about where he was. He was home, at least the home in this lifetime and at this time. At least that's what his material home was. His heart's home was wherever Cameron was and Cameron had been the one he had collided with when he had woken up and was now the mind soothing through his own as the physical Soulmate stood in front of him. Harry shuddered and slid down the wall, cradled his knees to his chest and buried his head against his arms to calm himself.
"Right, we're leaving." He recognised Jez's voice announcing loudly.
"Harry?" Cameron's thoughts echoed in his shattered mind. "Let me in, please?"
"You are in." Harry couldn't help but think back.
"I'm barely hearing your surface thoughts, love." Cameron told him. "We're barely connected right now. I can't feel anything from you."
"Cameron, it's too much." Harry pleaded. "You can't come in. You won't be able to stand it."
"Harry. I can take anything in the world if it means helping you." Cameron told him softly and dragged his head up from his arms. The room was empty now except for Harry and Cameron and Harry let Cameron pull him up and settle him on the bed. Cameron laid down and covered them with the duvet and Harry rolled into Cameron and buried himself in his arms, shaking and crying. Trying to make sense of all the screaming in his mind. Everything was laid bare and it was like being utterly lost. There was no sense of direction or order to his mind. No sense of what was open and what wasn't. There was no fog to hide the horrors of his old lives behind and just thinking about what atrocities had happened brought dozens of them flying across his vision.
He reached for Cameron mentally, begging him to save him and Cameron didn't hesitate and he felt Cameron's mind merge against the edge of his own but still Harry tried to hold back. To prevent Cameron from being hurt but Cameron was persistent and he sought out the one life within Harry that could stabilise all the others. He sought out A'Zia, seeking his help even though he was just a part of Harry. A'Zia was the part of Harry that had experienced everything there was in the world.
Slowly Cameron helped Harry to soothe out his thoughts. To smooth over the damage that the Cruciatus Curse had wrought on Harry's mind. Never before had Harry fully awakened at such speeds. Normally in a time when his life was threatened he'd partially awaken, gain the skills of another but he'd never awaken fully until later but now he was fully awakened with every moment of his lives over thirty thousand years scrambled within his mind, trying to sort themselves out.
Slowly Cameron used everything he already knew about Harry's past lives to find the parts of himself that Harry had already come to terms with. First A'zia the first and then Ryn the brother to the most famous Witches in history, Imazato the Samurai, Liam the Vampire Hunter, Nicolas the slave, Lucus the Witch Hunter's son, John the musician, Alexis the friend of a Witch and Ultan the warrior.
When Harry finally had those few to hide within he drew to himself and Cameron the memories of the latest dream. Those of Sete who had taken it upon himself to help Ryn's tribe-brother only to be murdered by that very man. "I'm sorry, Harry." Cameron told him not having to say aloud that he'd already known that Thierry was a Vampire Lord and had told Harry that he might not be the same.
"I think there's something wrong about that though." Harry told the love of his life simply. "I don't think I knew what I was seeing. I mean I don't think Sete really knew what was happening."
"You need sleep without any of these dreams." Cameron told him. "I'm going to go and get the Witches to put you under a spell."
"Cam..." Harry winced as the mere thought of putting a spell on him flashed up memories like movies. Of Witches cursing him throughout the ages but mostly from Lucus, the poor boy that had been spelled to survive just long enough to feel himself being burnt to death.
"I'll be here the entire time, Harry." Cameron promised him. "I won't ever let anything happen to you."
"I'm scared, Cam." Harry didn't mind admitting it to Cameron. Cameron already knew.
"I know, Harry, and I wish there was more I could do but I can only sit back and watch as you go through all of this pain." Cameron sounded so depressed and Harry realised that in the real world, where Cameron cradled Harry to his chest, that Cameron was crying. Harry sent him every feeling he had to spare. Sharing with Cameron everything that Harry felt for him. All the love and trust that was in his mind. The sense of protection that Cameron gave to him every moment of the day. "We'll get through this together, Harry."
Harry slowly pulled away from Cameron mentally and then physically and let Cameron kiss him before getting up out of bed. Harry turned on his side as Cameron slipped from the room and Cameron couldn't help but stand in the doorway and stare at Harry. He had imagined that Harry would be broken beyond repair but within Harry's mind just then he'd felt that immense strength in the centre of his mind that he'd felt from Harry every time he'd been in his mind. Harry had a core made of the strongest stuff Cameron had ever imagined and he realised now that it was made up of all the strengths of each of Harry's lives.
Cameron moved out into the sitting room of Harry's apartment and wiped at his face. The room was quite literally filled with people. There was Jez and Tamarack of course as well as Quinn and Rashel but also Harry's friend Nicky who had arrived as soon as she'd heard about Harry's abduction and Cameron knew that Jez and Rashel had taken her aside and tried to explain everything that was happening. Jez had explained that Nicky meant too much to Harry to leave her out of the loop. Harry needed her as much as any of the others. Also in the room were Aradia, Maiden of the Witches, and her three Witch bodyguards that had helped rescue Harry from the Wizards.
They all looked at Cameron as he walked inside but it was Tamarack that was suddenly in front of him and hugging him when she saw the tears. "It'll be alright, Cameron." She promised.
"I know." Cameron nodded. "His mind is so scattered right now, like an explosion went off but it's sorting itself out. The lives that were already a part of him are forming something like a core that all the rest is forming around."
"It will take more than this to break him." Aradia spoke up.
"Please, Aradia." Cameron pleaded with her. "Do you have something that will give him at least this night's sleep without the horrors?"
"We can try." She nodded and stood from the sofa. "But intervening in these situations is not an exact art. The power of an Old Soul's awakening is beyond even the strongest of us."
"Please, just try." Cameron begged. She nodded to him and moved closer and touched him on the cheek.
"Be strong, Cameron Drache." She told him before heading to the kitchen area with the other Witches.
"Is he alright?" Nicky accosted Cameron. She didn't yet trust him and Cameron didn't expect her to until she could speak to Harry.
"He's settled." Cameron told him. "I don't want to leave him for long though."
"We'll talk to the zoo, tell them that he's safe and try to sort out what's going to happen." Jez told them, taking Tamarack's hand in his own almost instinctively.
"If Harry is going to the US then we're going too." Nicky declared. Cameron could only nod slowly at her before heading back into Harry's bedroom to cradle him as Harry struggled with the chaos in his mind. He fell into a peaceful sleep once Aradia gave him a potion to drink but Cameron could feel his mind moving constantly and knew it was only a matter of a few hours before another of Harry's lives unfurled for him.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Kinen crouched in his tree spying down at the trail below him waiting for his quarry to arrive as he fingered his bow nervously. He'd been here for hours smeared in the leaves of the oak tree to hide his scent and wearing a small pouch that he'd gotten from a Witch who had claimed that her great grandmother had been in the final battle against the Amaru. A lot of Witches claimed that though but Kinen was different, he knew he had a tie to that final battle. He'd been there. Or rather A'Zia had. Kinen's other self. The one that had appeared in his mind as his sister was being eaten alive by a bear-shapeshifter. The one that had walked this world a hundred years ago during the great fires that had brought on this time of ice.
Kinen had grown up as a hunter's son, travelling the forests, hunting for their tribe. The tribe that had been wiped out by a group of shape-shifters except for a select few that had managed to disappear into the night. Kinen among them. That had been when he was eight and he had spent months accepting A'Zia into his soul. The thirty season year old warrior from myths. An angel that had come to the aid of the Witches and Humans against the Great Amaru.
Kinen hated Shapeshifters with every ounce of his body but A'Zia's temperate mind stayed his hand but the group he was waiting for had raided his tribe almost ten years ago and now Kinen was going to get his revenge. He drew his bow and aimed it at the first of the Shapeshifters, more a dog than a man and released the silver laced arrow straight into his heart.
Harry jolted up in the bed shaking as the images faded back into the rest of his mind. Kinen hadn't let the Shapeshifters get to him even when he was being overwhelm and had simply swallowed a small vial of poison. Kinen had been a scared boy with a dark past and a need to destroy those that had destroyed not only his life but A'Zia's. For an instant he thought he was alone until the feeling of an arm around his waist made him realise that Cameron was still sleeping and he didn't want to wake him knowing that for Cameron to sleep through anything he must have been really tired. Instead he laid back down and turned to embrace Cameron in his sleep, wiping the dried tears from his face and wishing that he didn't have to be the one to cause Cameron so much pain.
Cameron would of course say that Harry's pain was so much worse but Harry knew what it felt like to feel helpless and Cameron felt just that way even though Harry knew that he'd have gone mad if it wasn't for Cameron's constant worry and presence. In his mind he put Kinen in sequence between A'Zia and Ryn and wondered how many more memories he'd discover.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Harry didn't sleep the rest of the night and merely lay with his mind in turmoil, trying to smooth out the more panicked sections. He could barely stop himself from trembling at all the horrors he kept getting flashes off. Being killed more times than he could count and it seemed that destiny had it in for him. Very few time did he witness a peaceful death, most of the time it was violent and more often than not it was at the hands of a Witch, Vampire, Shapeshifter or Werewolf and even things like ghosts.
When Cameron woke up Harry turned to him and told him about Kinen and let Cameron worry over him and tell him off for not waking him up. In the end they both made their way into the living room to find several additional people that he hadn't expected among them two police officers and to his surprise David, his boss. Harry made to speak but the three didn't even look at him. Harry glanced around taking in Rashel, Jez, Nicky, the blind Witch Aradia, and lastly Tamarack and Quinn sitting opposite the three new comers.
"Nicky?" Harry asked quietly and she turned to see him and smiled happily and shot up and scooped him into a tight hug. Harry hugged her back rather bewildered by the fact she was there.
"We told her almost everything." Cameron's voice was in his mind. "About you being an Old Soul and what that is and about the Night World. Jez told her about you and I being Soulmates."
"What did she say?" Harry thought and knew that Cameron had heard it.
"She didn't really. Just stayed silent. That was until you woke up screaming last night." Cameron told him. "Then she just told me that she could handle the rest but if I ever let any harm come to you she'd hunt down every Night World citizen she could find."
"That sounds like her." Harry mused.
"I don't know how you do it, Harry." Cameron's voice was filled of pride. "One time you find friends that are happy to turn on you and then the next year you find so many people who are willing to take on the world to keep you safe."
"When we get you safe, Harry, you and I are going to sit down and talk about your penchant for finding trouble." Nicky told him as she pulled away.
"We?" Harry asked.
"I'm coming to the US." She told him. "So is Jez. Even without you being in danger we'd still take Doctor Mitchell's offer."
"What about the Vets?" He asked referring to her summer work.
"I can get out of that early." She shrugged. She moved out of the way and Harry turned his attention back on the stock-still three in the middle of the sofa.
"What's happening?"
"Tamarack and Quinn are explaining how you were abducted by a man after his partner forced you into the Lion pen to elude the security patrol. They're telling them that for your safety you are going to go to a family friend's home in Vegas until you start at Prima." Rashel told him as she stood.
"Do I get a choice?" Harry asked her.
"We want to protect you, Harry." Aradia spoke up as she stood and moved through the furniture as if she weren't blind though her hand lightly traced the back of the sofa. "We can do that better within Circle Daybreak and if you can assist us in this time of need then we would be grateful. However nothing we ever decide for you will be against your will. You have a choice in everything. If you wish to remain here then that is what shall happen. If that is what you wish however we would ask that you allow us to assign you more permanent protection."
"You are the Maiden?" Harry asked as he moved towards her. She held up a hand and Harry took it gently and held onto it for a moment. "A Daughter of Hellwise, that's what all Witches call themselves but you're directly descended aren't you?"
"I am a Harmen. A Hearth-Woman." She nodded.
"Hecate would be proud to see you now." Harry told her and saw her tense up as she realised he wasn't just generalising. "A story for later on. When we are in Vegas."
"Then you will come with us?" She asked.
"I will." Harry nodded and Cameron wrapped his arm around his waist knowing how hard it was for Harry to say that he'd step into the Night World. "I know that Cameron would leave the Night World behind for my sake, all but his brothers and sisters, but I would do the opposite for him. I will step into the Night World for his sake and for the people he cares about."
"I have felt the fracturing in your mind and can only imagine what must have been done to cause such a thing and if anyone can be of help it is the Old Souls within Circle Daybreak, many of whom have experienced horrors like your own." She told him.
"When do we leave?" Harry asked.
"If you are willing then we shall leave within the hour." She told him. "I would prefer to leave the country before the Wizards attempt to trace you. Our spells can only work for so long and only more permanent Enchantments can keep you hidden long term and I do not have the power or time to cast them now."
"Then please, Cameron and I need to talk for a while in private and also I need to pack." Harry told her. "Can you ensure that Quinn and Rashel escort Nicky to get anything she needs and Tamarack does the same for Jez?"
He wanted people he could trust to protect his best friends and Quinn was a good fighter. Aradia nodded and Harry turned to retreat to his room with Cameron close behind. Harry turned into him and merely leaned into his chest as he settled his nerves and let Cameron soothe him both physically but more importantly mentally.
"I'll protect you till my dying breath." Cameron told him and Harry could feel all the love through their bond and also Cameron's imagination running away with him. At the very top was the concept that perhaps Cameron could show Harry off to his older brother.
"You can tell him as soon as we arrive." Harry thought across the bond.
"Huh?" Cameron asked.
"Your brother." Harry explained showing he'd seen the thought. "I know how much you want his approval. I know how much he means to you."
Cameron sighed and squeezed Harry tighter and Harry merely clung to him, resting his head on his shoulder for a long time unwilling to break away and loose that comfort and strength.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
The fog pressed into his face as he ran through the trees as fast as he could but he didn't regret trying to run. He'd managed to avoid recapture for two weeks now and that was a feat in and of itself. Kevin risked a glance behind him as he heard the snap of trees and the panting of an animal and his eyes found a small shadow heading for him. A dog, one of the Shapeshifters that lived in Black Dawn. The Night World Conclave that had been his life from his first breathe and would be to his last. He'd tried to run and that had been pointless but then he had to do it.
He turned to concentrate on where he was running but ran straight into someone. Impossibly strong hands held his upper arms and he knew he was dead. A Vampire held him in a vice like grip and laughed in his ear as he lowered his head towards his throat. White light burst behind Harry's eyes and a sharp pain lanced through him and he realised after a moment that it wasn't from the Vampire's teeth but from his own head. The headache was immense but when it faded he found that he'd twisted out of the Vampire's grip and shoved him backwards, carrying both of them into the side of a tree.
The Vampire was completely still and his hands let Kevin pull free. Kevin had pushed the Vampire into a low, sharp, branch on the tree, impaling him. "Run!" A voice seemed to tell him and his instincts screamed at him and he turned to run even as the dog howled and leapt for him. Whatever had made him rum made him scoop up and rock and with deadly accuracy he twisted as he ran and threw the rock like a missile, slamming it into the dog's head.
What he needed was a sharp spear. Something he knew he could use to kill the Vampires and wound the others. He stumbled as he realised he thought he could actually use a spear properly but he didn't have time to think about it. He could hear them closing in on him, no longer playing with him now that he'd killed one of their own. He screeched to a halt as the ground suddenly ending with a sudden drop off that led down a sharp cliff. He put his back to the cliff and that was the last mistake he made. He just about heard the sound of wings before something sharp dug into the back of his neck and wrapped around him. He dropped to the ground to try to dislodge it but it accepted the pain to dig its beak into his vulnerable neck. He'd gone from nearly being drained by a Vampire to bleeding out because of a bird Shapeshifter.
Harry jerked away and grabbed at his throat before feeling arms wrapping around him and the feeling of a tight seatbelt around his chest. He was in the car and Cameron was holding him and everything was alright in his world. Not in Kevin's though. Not for a slave that, like Nicolas, had known nothing but slavery.
Harry had obviously fallen asleep in the back of the hire car that one of the Witches was driving. Rashel, Quinn and Cameron were also in his car while the other two hire cars took the rest. Jez had kicked up a fuss about not being able to stay with his best friend but the others were concerned that too many of the non-fighters in the same place wouldn't do them any good and eventually Tamarack had convinced her Soulmate of the wisdom of the layout. In the end Jez had gone with Tamarack and Nicky in one of the other cars while the other Witches and Aradia travelled together.e searched room
"Tell me." Cameron told him and Harry didn't argue with him and merely leaned into Cameron so that they were sitting normally again but with Harry resting under his arm and half hiding his face. His eyes flickered around the car and saw Rashel leaning around Cameron slightly, checking that he was alright. The Witch that was driving kept stealing glances back at him but didn't comment. Quinn was a surprise though, he was staring at Harry around his chair with deep concern on his face. Harry had quite clearly become more than just an Old Soul as far as Quinn was concerned and for the first time Quinn realised and even sympathised with the pain and horror that Harry was going through. Maybe starting to worry that trying to protect Harry from the outside dangers was pointless when Harry was clearly going insane from within.
"You're not going insane." Cameron told him abruptly showing once again that Cameron was so attuned to Harry's thoughts that he could pick up every self-loathing thought that flickered across his mind.
With a combination of words and images Harry showed Cameron the contents of his nightmare as well as a few little bits from Kevin's life. He'd been a cook within a Conclave surrounded by tall mountains in a dominating black castle that was almost always surrounded by thick banks of fog. It was one of the only lives where he had no idea where it laid within the greater scheme of things. He hadn't known when he was or even where the conclave was. All of the slaves had been born within the Conclave and nobody had stepped foot outside. Kevin had survived there until his sixteenth birthday when he'd tried to escape and died only unlocking a few of the skills learnt by Ryn and Ultan yet none of their memories before he'd been killed by the Shapeshifter.
By the time they'd finished talking through Kevin's life they were pulling up in the hire car centre at Heathrow Airport and three men with trolleys came out to the cars. Harry frowned at the help but Quinn leant in as they all got out of the car. "Aradia decided to pull some strings. We'll be fast tracked." Quinn told him and Harry congratulated himself on not shying away from the Vampire. "We don't want to spend hours hanging around if the Wizards think you might come this way."
Harry spared him a slight nod and jumped slightly when Aradia took hold of his left arm and linked their elbows together. Harry turned to look at her but she merely graced him with a smile. Harry actually found her presence soothing, not nearly as soothing as Cameron on his other side but still nice to have. The burden of her visions and the things she saw that the others missed gave her an understanding of what Harry was going through. An understanding that was trumped only by another Old Soul or by Cameron who could actually see the turmoil it was causing Harry.
It didn't take them much longer than an hour to get through customs and for Aradia, Cameron, Quinn, Rashel, Tamarack and the three other Witches to clear their passports and they boarded a British Airways 747 and went into the Sleepers Lounge where they had a bit of privacy. Harry was automatically led to one of the window seats by Cameron, Tamarack and Rashel and he sat down inside the little cubby space while Cameron took the space beside him and the others took seats in all directions, effectively blocking Harry from the rest of the airplane. In fact, with all eleven of them the closest stranger to Harry was half way across the plane.
"You ever flown before, Harry?" Rashel asked him as she leaned forward.
Harry frowned before turning to her. "No." He sounded half surprised.
"See, there's always something new to experience." Jez announced and turned in his seat to grab Harry's hand.
"It's easy, Harry." Cameron soothed him being able to feel exactly how anxious Harry was feeling and knowing why. After everything that Harry had done in all his lives he didn't like being out of control and flying in a plane, thousands of feet above the ground came under the out of control heading. They strapped themselves in as the plane began to taxi and Harry merely took Cameron's hand in his own making Cameron smile at him reassuringly.
The plane started to speed up and Harry shut his eyes as he felt the plane reach up into the air and he almost relaxed when he didn't feel the abrupt landing of the plane again and risked a glance out of the window to see the M25 motorway curving away underneath them as the plane banked up into the Northwest for their journey into the west.
"Every minute we're putting another few miles between us and the Wizards." One of the Witches leaned over to tell them.
"And that much closer to the Night World." Harry thought and knew that Cameron's mind was linked to his enough to hear it. Cameron spread his mind into Harry's, warming it up slightly. "Unfortunately they've killed me far more times than the Wizards."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
The courtyards were utterly silent as he perched on the top of the castle wall using the side of one of the towers to hide himself from the patrolling soldiers. Imazato would be proud of his ability to do this without taking life but not in the means he was using. Calamy had watched his entire family being executed by the French for helping the English even though all they'd done was take in two wounded English soldiers. Just as his mother and father had been beheaded Calamy's mind had broken and reformed in the space of an instant and he'd broken free of his captors. The eight year old had killed them and scaled the wall and vanished. He'd kept running east, through Europe and Asia until he'd reached Japan. There he'd used what he'd learnt when he'd Awakened to further his training to be a Ninja, completely not what Imazato would have liked but necessary.
He'd returned to France at twenty a completely different person and taken his revenge on the Count that had ordered his family's execution. After that he'd respected Sete, Ultan and Ryn and travelled Europe in search. Becoming a mercenary as he hunted down any of three people that were as timeless as he was. He hunted down Vampires to get information and his hunt for Thierry, Maya or the reincarnation of Hana had led him back to his home country where the soon to be sixteen year old Lady Harriett was about to be wed to the son of the very man that had ordered his family killed.
He didn't know why Thierry had killed Hana in Ancient Egypt but he knew that Sete had been confused by the change in Ryn's friend and Calamy didn't want to believe it either. A movement in the shadows of the courtyard attracted his attention as a stealthy figure moved through the castle. The person, a man, stepped out of the shadows and with a mere glance at the guard on the doors sent him tumbling to the ground, unconscious. A powerful Vampire.
It took Calamy a few minutes but he managed to follow the Vampire without being spotted by any of the guards and followed the Vampire through the castle to the east side. He approached the open door that he knew was to Lady Harriett's rooms and drew the sturdy wooden sword that he used to kill Vampires and slid through the doors.
The Lady's hand maiden was unconscious on the ground in the middle of the first room and he could hear talking in the bedroom so he slipped through the room to get a view. Lady Harriett had a good resemblance to Hana of so many thousand years ago and she looked wary as she watched the Vampire slowly close on her. So many emotions flickered across her expression, want being one of them but also fear. She'd been warning herself away from him again just like she had before. Calamy's other selves had seen the notes she left herself but apart from the time he caught up to her just as she died in Egypt he hadn't seen who had killed her.
Thierry, for that was who is was, half turned to look at Calamy, having obviously felt his presence in the doorway. "We don't want to be disturbed, do we Lady Harriett?"
"With the amount of mental power you're throwing at her, Thierry, it's amazing she's even still conscious." Calamy raised the sword and Thierry turned to face him properly. Clearly amazed that Calamy knew his name.
"And who are you?"
"So many people." Calamy smirked at him. "Though you should know that."
Thierry's eyes narrowed before a thoughtful look came over his face. "Ryn?" He asked and clearly got his answer from Calamy's hard expression. "I just keep running into you."
"Why do you keep killing her?" Calamy asked even though Harriett was standing against the wall in confusion over what was going on.
Thierry just smirked and Calamy took a moment to recognise that particular type of arrogant smirk and he reacted within an instant as Thierry leapt at him. Calamy drove the sword upwards with all of his weight and as Thierry struck him the sword drove into his side. He knew that Thierry had been able to dodge the blow slightly but Calamy had shocked him with his skill as he changed the attack half way through but not enough to counter Thierry's speed.
Thierry gave an angry growl and in that instant Calamy saw his eyes. They weren't Thierry's eyes but another Vampire's. Maya's. "Maya." Calamy hissed as understanding flooded him. It wasn't Thierry killing Hana but Maya hunting her down and making her think that Thierry was murdering her. So that if Thierry ever did find her before Maya he'd never have a chance of being with her.
Maya shoved him away like a cannon ball to the chest, sending him crashing through the edge of a cupboard and into the stone wall. He felt so much of his chest crumble he was amazed that when he hit the ground he was still alive. He couldn't feel his limbs and only felt almost overwhelming pain from his chest and back. He coughed out blood but Maya turned her back on him still looking perfectly like Thierry except now her blood leaked from her side where Calamy had pierced her with wood.
"Hana!" Calamy tried to gasp out. "Run!"
Harriett looked at him in surprise though she was pale and shaking like a leaf and Maya laughed and grabbed the almost sixteen year old girl and before anything could be said she tore at the side of her neck. Draining her while Calamy could do nothing but watch.
His life began to fade until he felt a sudden burst of energy and his eyes burst open to see himself looking directly at Thierry's face again. He couldn't struggle away from his grip in his state but when he felt a mind against his own he recognised it not as the evil of Maya but as the real Thierry. He shoved everything he could about what was happening at Thierry and saw his old friend's eyes widen in shock and desperation before Calamy began to go limp.
"My dear friend." Thierry whispered at him sadly and leaned in. The last thing that Calamy felt was the Vampire kissing him gently on the forehead in way of a farewell.
Harry gasped as he woke up. It was dark and not only because he had a blanket pulled up almost to his head and he was blocked by Cameron. The aircraft interior was also darkened but as Harry took a look around it was only to see that his dream hadn't attracted too much attention.
"Are you alright?" Cameron asked tentatively and Harry opened his mind to the link and let Cameron flood into his head. Let the world slip away as it became just the two of them surrounded in the crazed intricacies of Harry's tortured mind. The foremost of the memories filled with that of Calamy.
"I'll be okay." Harry told the love of his life and was actually far calmer than Cameron had been expecting. "It was Maya killing Hana all along. She just appeared to look like Thierry but Calamy died in the real Thierry's arms after Maya killed him and Hana."
"Oh, Harry." Cameron sighed in defeat and Harry felt the waves of Cameron's own desperation. He couldn't stand not having a way to stop the pain and suffering that Harry was going through.
"I don't mind all of this." Harry told him. "I don't mind being an Old Soul. It gives my life a purpose and I don't mind all the fights and deaths because I did them to save people in most cases. They mean something."
"But I don't want you to die this time." Cameron told him and Harry wasn't sure if Cameron meant for him to hear it. It wasn't something they'd ever tried to discuss before. When Harry died he'd come back but when Cameron died he wouldn't. Harry wasn't sure he could live without Cameron anymore and the idea of living so many lives on into eternity was almost too much for him.
"I'm not going to die any time soon, Cam." Harry told him.
"How do you know?" Cameron asked.
"Because I have you to protect me." Harry told him before pushing himself out of his own mind to meet Cameron's mind equally and the two simply fell together to share their thoughts, emotions and feelings.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
They came back to reality as a mind brushed over their own and Cameron reacted against its intrusion even as Harry's mind shoved up barriers of the worst things he had witnessed. Cameron rather instinctively threw the horrible memories at the person who's mind had met theirs even as Harry opened his eyes and saw Tamarack raising her hands in surrender from the Sleepers seats in front of them. Harry glanced at Cameron who was glaring at her.
"Don't do that." Cameron told her.
"I just thought you should know where're coming down to land." Tamarack defended. "I wasn't going to actually intrude and did you really have to do that to me?" She turned to Harry at the last part.
"It wasn't me that threw them at you." Harry defended quietly even as he reached over for Cameron's hand and squeezed it to calm him down. Cameron was pissed purely because he knew that every time somebody other than himself intruded against Harry's mind Harry recognised it and his memories became even more crazed as Harry panicked.
"There's a couple of cars waiting for us outside the airport." Aradia told them as soon as they had landed. "I won't be travelling with you because I don't want to draw attention to you and I'm rather obvious to any Night World. I'd suggest the same for Cameron too..."
"Not a chance." Cameron started but Aradia clearly hadn't finished.
"However," She stressed. "I know you won't let him out of your sight."
"We'll travel with Harry." Nicky announced glancing at Jez who nodded. "That way they'll think that Cameron is just covering as a normal human and even if they think it strange they'll not notice Harry in particular."
"I don't like the idea of you jumping in front of me." Harry told her.
"Tough." Nicky told him primly before standing up and grabbing her carry on from the locker. Cameron laughed at Harry even though he tried not to and reached up for Harry's bag and his own before tugging Harry out of his seat. Harry stepped around Cameron as they walked so he was following Nicky and he grabbed her hand to show that he did appreciate her concern.
As they got in line at Customs where he, Jez and Nicky had to go in a different direction to the others Harry leaned in to her and Jez moved closer so Harry could talk to them both without anyone else hearing. "Do you both realise how dangerous the Night World is?"
"I've seen it in Tam's mind." Jez blushed slightly as Harry and Nicky both looked at him in amusement. Jez and Tamarack had been rather private about their relationship but Harry and Cameron knew that they had fallen for each other just as Harry and Cameron had. The only reason they weren't always attached like Harry and Cameron were was because Tamarack was concerned about her mission here and that was protecting Harry and Cameron and she couldn't do that if she spent all of her time with Jez. Harry knew that and hated it. Jez needed the happiness in his life just as Harry did. "Some of it's beautiful but then some of it..."
"Some of it." Harry nodded to show he agreed. "Nicky, sometimes it's the best place in the World but if you get on the wrong side of it then it bites hard."
"And as three humans we're already on the wrong side from the start." Jez told her.
"They've got a couple of laws that guide them." Harry told her because he knew that Jez already knew.
"Don't tell the humans about it." Nicky nodded and Harry knew that Jez had already warned her about that one when he told her about it.
"And don't fall in love with humans." Harry finished. "Not only do we all know about it but Jez and I have both fallen in love with members of the Night World." Harry didn't need to look at Jez to know that was true. "If a Night Worlder falls for a human both of them are killed. It's as simple as that and Cameron's status won't prevent that."
"Cameron's status?" Nicky asked.
"I didn't tell you before." Jez grinned apologetically. "The Shapeshifters are ruled by a ruling house and the 'King' is Cameron's father."
"He's not the heir." Harry pointed out. "His older brother is."
"Sucks to be him." Nicky said.
"The problem is that we three are targets and because of Jez and me so are Tamarack and Cameron. Cameron is also high profile, a lot of Night Worlders will know what he looks like and he can't defend himself." Harry explained. "We can't make a mistake that costs them their lives and I can't let the two of you get hurt."
"We know, Harry." Nicky sighed and touched him on the arm.
"No, I'm serious, Nicky." Harry told her needing her to really understand. "I've been through too much in the last thirty thousand years and I can't lose everything after the last nineteen years I've just had."
"Thirty thousand years..." Nicky almost laughed though it was out of nervousness more than anything else.
"Look, I've dragged you into this world and you didn't really have a choice." Harry started.
"We had a choice, Harry." Nicky told him. "We chose to help you."
"But you're both too good to have not helped. That's what I mean." Harry sighed. "It's my fault you two are now in danger and I don't want you to get hurt so no matter what happens you stay safe."
"I can't speak for Nicky, Harry." Jez told him. "But Tamarack... she means a lot to me. I suppose you understand how much. That makes any of this risk worthwhile. If it wasn't for you I would never have met her."
"Oh damn." Nicky looked around them. "I think we lost Jez somewhere on the plane."
Harry laughed as his best friends started bickering and as the queue moved forwards they bickered over him but kept at his sides, lightening the mood dramatically. They met up with the others just through customs and found them already waiting with their luggage.
"Where are we going anyway?" Harry asked Aradia.
"We're going to a mansion on the edge of the city. It's where Circle Daybreak is run from." Aradia told him. "They've agreed to house you until you decide what to do."
"Who's house is it?" Harry asked.
"Mansion on the edge of Las Vegas?" Cameron frowned. "You can't mean Thierry Descoudres."
Aradia smiled and nodded gracefully though she didn't seem to understand what Cameron's shock was for. "He has always been a friend to people like yourselves and you'll soon understand why."
Harry gazed at her for a moment and she frowned at the look in his eyes. "I already know why."
"Do you?" Aradia seemed surprised and Harry finally had an idea of exactly what she knew about him. Clearly she knew that Harry would be pivotal in this coming war since it had been her vision in the first place but she clearly hadn't known exactly how old Harry was. Clearly Tamarack had told her very little, perhaps nothing more than that one of the Princes of the Shapeshifters had met his Soulmate who was an Old Soul. That was basically what they planned to tell anyone. Cameron had already agreed that it would be his situation which made protecting Harry important.
"Why take us to him?" Harry pressed.
"He is very interested in the son of the Ruler of the Shapeshifters being in such a situation." Aradia told him. "While he is not officially with Circle Daybreak and neither are the Witches we are trying to find out which sides people will choose if war comes upon us."
"I wouldn't think that the Night Worlders would chose different side." Harry spoke up even as they left the airport and headed to the cars where they would split up until they arrived at their destination.
"Things are changing." Aradia told him before she let one of her escorts guide her into a black limo.
"Come on, babe." Cameron whispered in his ear as Harry was too distracted to notice that the others were getting into a black Mercedes. "Are you alright?" He asked telepathically as soon as Harry was in the car and it was pulling away with Tamarack at the wheel and Nicky in the front seat. Jez, Cameron and Harry were in the back.
"I just never thought to run into Thierry this fast." Harry sighed.
"Is that a bad thing?" Cameron asked.
"The only times I remember seeing him in the last twenty thousand years is when I was dying or when Maya took his form." Harry sighed. "I don't know what to say to him."
Cameron surprised him by laughing and it took a while before he was able to calm himself. He looked at Harry's offended look and quickly pecked him on the lips filling Harry's body with that tingling sensation that came through their connection. "Why's that so funny?" Harry asked.
"Because of all the things to worry about that's the worst you can think of." Cameron's mind, against his own, soothed out any other worry Harry could have. "You realise that he's the oldest Vampire in existence now that Maya has been proven dead. He's the strongest and he's a major player in the Night World Council."
"And I know he's been in love with a human for twenty thousand years breaking the Night World laws even before they'd been written." Harry said to calm Cameron down. He knew, and could feel, exactly how scared Cameron was for Harry right then. Bringing Harry straight into Las Vegas, a place almost completely owned by the Night World and taking him to the mansion of the oldest of the Vampires who was revered and feared by most of the Night World. "Besides I don't need to fear him because I know you'll protect me."
"You're the one who's been a Vampire Hunter more than once." Cameron managed to sound meek as he spoke though Harry could feel the humour in his mental voice that belied it as a joke. Harry let himself sink into the feeling of Cameron's mind as they approached the edges of the city and where the casinos and hotels gave way to houses which grew larger as they went until they pulled through large black gates and onto an open drive giving view of a massive mansion that was almost half the size of Hogwarts and had more grounds than Marwell Zoo.
Harry spotted a pen housing horses off to the left of the drive and found himself longing for the Zoo again and the career he'd chosen for himself. He missed the animals and felt sorry for Choto on his own and for the keepers who'd have to chase the Orang-utan around the zoo every time he escaped. "We'll find a way for you to continue." Cameron told him, listening into the wisps of his thoughts. "You love working there and I won't take that away from you even if we have to go live on a safari in Africa to get you what you want and to stay safe."
"I want to fly too." Harry sighed. It had been a couple of days now since he'd used his wings to save himself and Tamarack and they'd pained him since then even hidden as they were. He desperately wanted to bring them out even just once but he'd barely been alone and now that he was surrounded by Night World people he couldn't risk going flying without being spotted by all the ones that could see in the dark so well.
"I know." Cameron sighed. "I can feel it in your mind every time you get the urge and have to fight it down."
Before Harry could respond the car pulled up outside the mansion's large front doors alongside the limo that had taken Aradia away from the airport and just as they were getting out of the car a black sedan arrived with Quinn and Rashel who had clearly followed them at a distance to make sure they were safe.
Harry looked around barely being able to keep his anxiety at bay and needed Cameron who couldn't risk taking Harry's hand in case the mansion was being watched. Harry could feel that Cameron was still a little scared about Harry being spotted and killed or even about meeting Thierry who he knew had the duty of killing them both and it wouldn't take many Night Worlders long to recognise Harry, Jez and Nicky as humans.
A man came out of the house as Quinn and Rashel joined the five of them and greeted Quinn with a smile that belied what he was and made Harry tense up slightly before forcing himself to relax. The Vampire could have been any age and Harry knew that they didn't give away what they wanted until they already had it and that was normally after they were already sucking the blood from your body.
"Harry, stop it." Cameron groaned into his mind and Harry reigned in his thoughts that had been filled with flashes of Vampires attacking him.
"Sorry." Harry told him meekly just as the Vampire looked at him, saw his eyes and surprised Harry by nodding his head with respect.
"Mr. Potter." The Vampire greeted him. "My name is Nigel. The Maiden told us of your arrival. I'm afraid that Lord Thierry has had to attend to something of importance in the city centre but he has been told of your arrival and will be here soon. In the meantime I've been instructed to escort you all to the gallery. There are others there that would like to meet you."
"By others you mean...?" Harry prompted, surprising himself by his level tone that didn't show any of his fear.
"Others like you, Sir." Nigel told him and Harry frowned at the sir part.
"You're going to be respected, Harry." Cameron whispered into his mind. "That's the way it is. He knows you're an Old Soul."
"You mean Old Souls?" Harry asked.
"Sorry, sir." Nigel paused. "I meant others like yourself and Mr. Drache."
"Ah..." Harry muttered. "Then I suppose you should lead the way."
As soon as they were in and the door was closed Harry sought out Cameron's hand and held it tightly even as Jez and Tamarack moved closer together and so the three Soulmate couples and Nicky headed up through the mansion to a large gallery on the top floor. One side of the room was lined by large windows and the room itself was filled with comfortable looking chairs, art and at the far end was a Grand Piano. In between the door and the piano however were a number of people and Harry was forced to stop as he took them in. There were five of them, three Vampires and two that could either be humans or Witches. They looked up as Jez made a sound to see Harry, Cameron, Jez, Tamarack, Nicky, Quinn and Rashel enter.
"Quinn." One of the Vampires, the only one standing up greeted with a toothy grin. "What have you drug up this time?"
Harry eyed him and Cameron guided him forwards, perhaps a little faster than Harry would have liked. "Ash, shut up." The other male Vampire rolled his eyes. This one had his arm draped across the shoulder of a tiny girl who seemed almost too young to be there but at another look Harry realised that she was clearly a mid teenager. Maybe sixteen or seventeen in body but could be any age since she was a Vampire as well.
The two stood up as did the other two 'mortals' and Harry noticed the necklace that the 'mortal' girl was wearing. A Witch amulet and now that Harry could see her eyes parts of him screamed at him that she was a Witch. Mainly Liam. The guy she stood with looked human to Harry though.
The Vampire that had told Ash to shut up turned to Cameron. "You're Cameron Drache then?" Cameron nodded beside Harry. "My name's James, this is my Soulmate, Poppy."
Cameron shook his hand but Harry stuffed his left hand in his pocket in a clear sign that he wasn't about to shake anybodies hands and James didn't try. "So even the Shapeshifters are being hit then?" Ashe asked in amusement. "I bet your dad's not impressed."
"Ash, don't make me hurt you." The Witch narrowed her eyes at Ash.
"Fine then." Ash sighed. "I was just having some fun. I'm getting bored."
"We know." Both the Witch and James groaned at the same time.
"I'm sorry." The Witch smiled. "My names is Thea and this is Eric. I'm a Witch, Eric's human and James, Poppy and Ash are all Vampires. James and Ash were born as humans and Poppy was turned last summer. I'm not sure, do you all know the differences?" Thea asked glancing at Nicky, Jez and then Harry.
"They've been told." Cameron spoke up. "Like James said, I'm Cameron and no, my father doesn't know where I am." Cameron narrowed his eyes at Ash who grinned as if he wasn't being told off by the younger of two Princes of the Shapeshifters who demanded the respect and obedience of any Shapeshifter they ran into. "This is Harry, my Soulmate, Tamarack and her Soulmate Jeremy."
"Jez." Jez growled as he slapped Cameron in the back making Harry smile for the first time since walking into the mansion. Poppy smiled as she caught his expression and he lost his smile slowly though not because of her.
Cameron grinned over his shoulder at Jez before continuing. "This is Nicky and I suppose you know Quinn and Rashel."
"So, you're the Old Soul?" James asked as he and Poppy sat down where they'd been before. Cameron led Harry down to sit on the same sofa so that Harry was leaning against his side. Tamarack, Nicky and Jez took a sofa to themselves while Quinn and Rashel sat on stools behind Harry.
"Yeah." Harry muttered.
"You don't say much for an Old Soul." Ash pointed out.
"You know any?" Harry asked.
"Well we've got a couple here." Thea told him. "I'm sure they'll be able to talk you through it."
"Don't get me wrong when I say this but I've had enough experience with it." Harry told her.
"He's a little taken aback right now." Rashel spoke up. "He was captured by some nasty people back in England and they..."
"They what?" Thea asked.
"It doesn't matter. But it kind of overloaded him when everything opened up to him." Rashel continued.
Harry glanced at her to thank her for not giving out all the details. "So how did you get to know each other?" Eric asked.
"I'm training to be a vet." Harry told them. "And I was working at Marwell Zoo and Cameron came visiting with his family."
"We felt a connection and when it came time for me to leave I couldn't." Cameron continued for him.
"By the time he came back to the Zoo I was starting to awaken." Harry shrugged.
"What's it like?" Eric looked curious and he leaned forwards slightly.
Harry was silent for a time but nobody else spoke. "I was born into a Conclave off the east coast of the US." Harry started making everyone frown except for Cameron who quickly knew who Harry was talking about. "At least that's what the new slaves that were brought there said it was. I didn't know what the US was."
"I didn't know there were any conclaves like that left." Ash spoke up.
"Shhh!" Poppy told him.
"Anyway, I had a little sister that I looked after but there was this other slave that wanted her but she didn't want him and he knew he couldn't get her with me around so he stole a snake I was supposed to look after and when my Master found out he was furious."
"Did you run away?" Thea asked.
"I didn't get the chance. I killed the slave that wanted my sister to protect her and the next thing I knew my Master was ripping open my throat and draining my blood." Harry said and saw the instant that the others realised he was talking about a past life. "I woke up from that a few weeks ago and it feels like that was when it actually happened and not three hundred years ago. I have to remind myself that my little sister isn't still a slave and that I'm too late to try to rescue her from that life."
"I'm sorry." Eric apologised for asking the question in the first place.
"Are most of your lives like that?" Ash asked.
"It seems that I am fated to run into the Night World in most of my lives. I have a couple of pleasant lives in my mind but most tend to end in a similar way." Harry sighed. "And with the knowledge that there is a chance that the people that have killed me are still out there somewhere."
Quinn flinched so dramatically that he drew everyone's attention. "Quinn?" Thea asked.
"Hunter Redfern..." Quinn started.
"Who was also the one that killed Harry in that story." Cameron hissed out.
Quinn winced before continuing. "He ordered me to hunt down a couple of kids in Boston in 1872. A Witch and a human boy she'd grown up with and told. I did it."
"You were the human boy?" James asked and Harry nodded and turned to look at Quinn seeing the horror in his eyes. He'd clearly fully recalled the events that had happened over a hundred years ago.
"I can imagine the pain." Thea told him. "I'm sorry."
"Imagining is one thing..." Harry started.
"But really understanding is something completely different." A new voice spoke up and they all looked towards the door and only the five Vampires in the group weren't surprised at the voice. They'd heard them come in or at least the girl. She looked about the same age as Thea, about sixteen or seventeen. At her side was somebody that took Harry's breath away. His mind went completely chaotic and even though he'd known that eventually he'd meet Thierry he hadn't been ready for it and what he'd said to Cameron in the car about not knowing what to say had been true.
He managed to drag his attention away from Thierry to look at the girl again and a dozen voices in his head, some that he really knew and others that were now a part of him but not as much as those like Liam and Nicolas which he'd relived, screamed at him that this was Hana. She looked so much like the original Hana of the Three Rivers Tribe that it was uncanny. It was the same Soul but not the same body yet she could be the twin of the original Hana. His eyes were finally drawn to the birthmark on her cheek, it was pale, barely darker than her skin yet Harry could see it easily enough to recognise it from so many lifetimes yet it had never been so obvious.
Harry resorted to going on the defensive which meant the parts of him like Imazato, Ultan, Liam and A'Zia came to the fore led by the three that Harry really knew about that had dealt with Thierry and Hana before. Ryn, Sete and Calamy, the ones that were involved in Thierry and Hana personally.
He stood up gracefully and knew that the fighters in the room had noticed the way he had moved. Cameron stood up quickly behind him but Harry didn't reach to take his hand and Cameron respected that Harry wanted to do this on his own.
"You must be Mr. Potter. Harry if I may?" Harry nodded as Thierry spoke. "Thank you. I am Thierry and this is my Soulmate Hannah."
Harry didn't react to the slight variation of her name. He'd heard many different versions of the same name but she was really Hana to him and always had been and probably was to Thierry too. "I hope the others have been kind to you. I'm sorry we weren't around when you arrived. I understand you've had a rough time in the last few weeks." Hannah smiled and moved forwards to shake his hand. Harry took it and held it for a moment without speaking. "I hope I can be of some help. I only awoke myself a few months ago so I'm new to this."
"Perhaps then I can be of help to you." Harry offered. "I've lived many lives whilst fully awakened."
"We can help each other then and the other Old Souls will want to meet you." Hannah smiled before looking at Thierry with the same smile. Harry looked at Thierry again and Thierry's eyes met his own.
"I know better than to skim your thoughts without your permission but perhaps if you allow me to look I can compare the state of your thoughts to Hannah's." Thierry offered. "Aradia informed me that you were having some trouble adjusting."
"I don't think that's a good idea." Cameron spoke up. "I'm sorry, Lord Thierry, but anyone other than me who has tried has come out with a major headache."
"Ah, Prince Cameron." Thierry turned to him. "I apologise for overlooking you. My concern is only with Harry's state of mind. I can understand the turmoil created by awakening having witnessed it's chaos with Hannah many a time. I wish only to be of help."
"Let him, Cameron." Harry spoke quietly. "But please, Thierry, stay cautious and do not search."
"Very well." Thierry smiled at him reassuringly and Harry barely felt the intrusion into the edges of his mind but his mind was chaotic and his memories clashed against Thierry's mind like a building battered by a hurricane. Harry winced as he himself witnessed the worst memory in his mind. The feeling and emotions when he was spelled by Witches to resist death before being burned alive. As a small boy named Lucus.
Thierry struggled to ignore it and look at the general shape of Harry's mind but eventually he withdrew. He had gone pale and his teeth had lengthened and he'd become more of the predator he was at the experience. "Harry?" Cameron hissed out loud and inside his mind.
Harry tilted his head and shut his eyes to clear his mind before looking at his Soulmate. "Lucus." Was all he said and Cameron bit his lip and tucked an arm around Harry's waist.
"I admit the snippet I saw is not something I have thought to witness." Thierry admitted.
"Thierry, Hannah." Harry only just caught himself as he spoke her name. "May I speak to the two of you alone for a few minutes?"
Thierry nodded to him and glanced at Quinn who nodded. "Harry?" Cameron asked. "Do you want me to stay?"
Harry turned to him and worried his own lips before touching Cameron so he could speak to him mentally. "I think I need to do this alone." Harry told him and Cameron nodded and followed the others out of the room, probably fully intending to make sure everyone was far enough away to not be able to overhear.
"Is there something you did not wish the others to hear?" Thierry asked.
"You can trust us, Harry." Hannah told him.
Harry chuckled and walked over to the Grand Piano and sat down on the stool and leaned his elbows on his knees. "I've known them only a few minutes and I've known Cameron for a few weeks. I've known my best friends for a year. I have no desire to know the relatives that abused me as a child nor the Wizards that used me as a tool and just captured and tortured me enough that my mind completely opened out to me."
"Aradia mentioned Wizards." Thierry frowned.
"I truly hope to never have to deal with them again." Harry told him as the two sat together on a sofa facing Harry.
Harry looked at Thierry. "How far back do you remember?"
"A long way. To before I was changed into a Vampire." Thierry told him.
"By Maya?" Harry asked and Hannah flinched.
"By Maya, yes." Thierry nodded confused as to where Harry was going with this.
"And you, Hannah?" Harry asked.
"My first life was in a tribe quite close to where Thierry's tribe was. I was a little younger than Thierry. That was about twenty thousand years ago. Before Vampires took over the world from the Witches." Hannah told him. "What about you?"
Harry looked at her and hung his head before looking up with saddened eyes. "I know you two." He whispered. "You and I, Hannah, share a connection because for thousands of years we have been at the receiving end of Maya's hatred."
"What did you do to Maya?" Thierry asked.
"I grew up with her." Harry told Thierry slipping from English to the language their tribe had used to speak. It took Thierry a moment to recall the speech but when he did his eyes widened and he stood up so fast that Hannah almost fell away from him. Harry followed him up slower and Thierry was less than a foot from him faster than Harry could see him. Their eyes met but Harry knew that Ryn's eyes had been completely different to his own now.
"What's going on?" Hannah demanded as she stood up. "What did he say, Thierry?"
"He said he grew up with Maya." Thierry told her not yet able to discern whether that meant that Harry was good or evil.
"You mean she raised you in one of your lives?" Hannah told him.
"No, Hana." Harry pronounced Hannah's name the original way and both of them blanched slightly. "Maya has killed me more times than I can yet claim and normally in the worst ways she could under the circumstances. I witnessed your first death and several afterwards and you have witnessed at least one of my deaths before at the hands of what you thought was Thierry but was actually Maya."
"How do you know all of that?" Hannah asked him levelly.
"Because he's Ryn." Thierry almost seemed to realise it as he spoke.
"Ryn?" Hannah frowned. "The man from your tribe that brought you back after you killed me and then hid you."
"Maya wasn't impressed that I hid him though." Harry said as he turned away and walked to the window looking out at the sprawling grounds of the mansion.
"I never found out what happened." Thierry whispered though he hadn't moved and was now looking away from Harry who turned to look at Hannah.
"When I was Ryn my parents were killed in a wolf attack on our tribe. This was when you were Hana." Harry started. "I was raised by the leader of the tribe, Hecate, alongside her two daughters, Hellwise and Maya. I was slightly younger than them both, three and four years respectively but Thierry and I were the same age and we learned to hunt together."
"And then Maya did it." Thierry was still facing away from them and Hannah looked like she desperately wanted to go to him but she didn't move just yet.
"Maya turned herself into a Vampire and bit Thierry first. He didn't give into her and ran away and Maya started turning more of our tribe until Hecate called a stop to it and a fight began. Hellwise saved my life in that battle but that night she duelled Maya, won, but died of her wounds." Harry was speaking quieter now but knew that both could hear him. "I went after Thierry and watched what happened to the warriors in your tribe and that was when I first met you. I found Thierry knelt in the middle of a field, a rather broken being. I took him back to the tribe but he couldn't stand what he'd done so Hecate cast a spell on him so that he would sleep until you were reincarnated."
"What happened then?" Hannah asked knowing that while it was the end of what Thierry had told her Harry would have more to say.
"I hid him where only I could have found him." Harry told her. "Maya came looking for him about two months later but I wouldn't tell her where he was hidden. She didn't bother to actually drink my blood, just tore my throat out. Barely twenty feet from our tribe. She never feared anything, even when alive and I was merely a human."
"You died to keep me hidden?" Thierry finally turned to look at him.
"I'd lost Hellwise, half the tribe and you, Thierry." Harry shrugged. "I knew what she'd do if she got to you while you slept and I couldn't allow that."
"You said you'd seen me since then." Hannah prompted.
"I'm still sorting out my lives, they're not coming one at a time anymore and it's hard to get a handle on them." Harry sighed. "But I know of two times I saw you but I think I have seen you more times than that. Once I was called Sete and I was in Ancient Egypt. I was awakened and I tracked Maya to a temple but arrived too late. But it wasn't Maya I saw it was..."
"Me." Thierry sighed as Harry paused. "It was Maya."
"I know but Sete didn't." Harry sighed. "What I thought was you had just finished killing Hannah before he saw me and within moments I was dead. There was nothing I could do. The second time was during the time when England occupied most of what is now Northern France. I was a Vampire Hunter called Calamy but I'd been searching for you for years, Hannah."
Thierry shut his eyes tightly, forcing himself to remain calm. It was Hana that spoke though. "I... I think I can remember that one. I was about to marry."
"A Lord who's parents I'd killed because he'd executed my family and tried to kill me." Harry nodded to her. "I arrived again just a little too late to warn you but you were still alive. I fought 'Thierry' again but got thrown back into the wall. I was going to die from that point but I learnt the truth then because I drove my sword into her and she couldn't hide who she truly was from me and Maya and I have had many run ins over the years that weren't brought about by either of you."
"I remember watching you die." Hannah blinked tears from her eyes. "You tried to save me."
"I don't think it was ever supposed to be me that saved you." Harry sighed before moving over to Thierry's side and touching his arm. "I remember that time I saw you crouched over me when I came to for a short while. I shoved the memories that I could at you. And then you kissed me on the forehead."
"You can remember all of that?" Thierry turned to him.
"I relived that life on the plane over here, this morning. It feels to me like it just happened." Harry sighed and rubbed at his face. "I'm sorry I could never stop it."
Before he could react Thierry had moved, hugging Harry tightly. "You should never have had the burden of feeling that you had to try." Thierry told him and Harry hugged him back. "I tried to search for you for hundreds of years but you never had the distinctive signs that Hannah did."
"I know." Harry sighed. "Cameron said...."
"What?" Thierry asked as he let go of Harry.
"He said that Maya was dead." Harry told him. "Is it true?"
"It's true." Thierry nodded. "She got tired of not being able to get me so she tried to turn Hannah so that she wouldn't be an Old Soul any longer."
Harry turned to Hannah and took her hand. "Hana." He smiled at the name. "I'm happy to see that the two of you are finally able to be together. I only regret that it wasn't possible until now."
Harry sat down on the piano stool again and touched the keys but didn't put any weight on them. He knew somewhere inside him that he could play the piano but wasn't sorted out enough to know for sure. He turned to look at Thierry who was standing behind Hannah with his arms around her.
"Did Tamarack tell you about the prophecy that we uncovered?" Thierry asked.
"Thierry, you heard the original telling of that prophecy just like I did." Harry smiled at him. "But if you're going to ask if I'm going to be the one that helps you through these troubled times then yes it's supposed to be me."
"And what Aradia saw?" Thierry asked.
"I've seen too much in this life. I was a Wizard. I was part of a Prophecy from a Seer twenty years ago and a Dark Lord came after me when I was fifteen months old and murdered my parents. I was placed with my aunt and her husband who between them starved and beat me. Then I went to school with Wizards and they tried to turn me into their weapon. I fought a war that cost me the only two people that actually cared about me and they died when I should have been able to protect them but I didn't know who I really was." Harry looked down at the ground. "The Wizards tried to force me to fight for them so I left that world and tried to be normal only to meet Cameron and for all of this to awaken in me."
"Are you going to draw a line at one war in a lifetime?" Thierry asked him.
Harry actually started laughing. "Thierry. In the last few weeks I've witnessed millions of deaths and hundreds of wars and lost so many loved ones I can't begin to imagine how many it was. I'm drained and Cameron is the only reason I can even think clearly."
"Will you think about it?" Thierry asked.
Harry stood up and Thierry let go of Hannah to stand in front of him. Harry raised a hand and cupped the side of his neck and dropped his head for a moment. "You know I go back further than Hana and yourself. I'm wounded, Thierry, but I owe it to you to try. I'll help you but whether I can fight another war is another matter. I'll try though."
Thierry sighed and nodded gratefully. "Harry? Ryn?" He started before shaking his head and trying to work it out.
Harry laughed. "When I'm with you I'm more Ryn than anyone else and this body as such belongs to Ryn just as much as it belongs to any of the others."
"Ryn." Thierry nodded. "You're first life, you had..." He glanced at Hannah and Harry followed his eyes to see her confused look.
"I didn't when I was Ryn. Are you asking if I do now?" Harry asked.
"I am." Thierry nodded.
"Thierry, my race died off thirty thousand years ago. Cal'va and myself were the last to die." Harry told him.
"It's just the prophecy suggested that the oldest race would return to help us." Thierry sighed. "They don't have a clue what that means, they think it's Shapeshifters but I know..."
"What are you two talking about?" Hannah demanded and both turned to look at her making her go red.
"The Prophecy speaks of the oldest of beings returning." Thierry told her.
"They think it does." Hannah pointed out. "Nobody really knows the true wording."
"Sorry, Hannah, but both Ryn and I witnessed Hecate cast that prophecy and we know what it really means." Thierry told her. "Ryn, well Harry, is the person it talks about but I thought it meant you'd..."
Harry sighed and looked Thierry deep into the eyes. "This cannot leave this room. My best friend's know and Tamarack and Cameron know but that is it. Not even your Circle Daybreak can be told. I won't become a tool for your war, Thierry."
"You mean...?" Thierry's eyes widened and Harry finally gave into his desire to open his wings and pulled off his jacket and let his wings spread open in the large gallery yet still they had to stay folded because they were across the room rather than along it. The deep navy blue span, almost black in appearance, blocked out the light and cast a shadow down the gallery. Harry flapped them a couple of times feeling the movement of the air around the strained muscles and watching as the air pushed at the two others in the room.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
End Chapter