Temporal Illusion
Chapter 6; A Prince's respect
Thierry's mansion
Harry flexed his wings as much as he could across the large room and stared at his ancient friend who was staring at him in awe. The eldest of the Vampires looking at him in reverence. Hannah was clearly almost in shock. "You look like an angel." She gasped. "Never have I seen something like this before."
"My kind were ten thousand years extinct before your first life." Harry said gently before folding his wings but he left them visible because they hurt so much. "I'm afraid they are strained. They are not designed to carry the weight of anyone but myself but in escaping from the Wizards I was forced to catch myself and Tamarack."
"Ryn..." Thierry shut his eyes as if seeing Harry's wings was painful to him. Harry knew though that it was merely his memories of the last twenty thousand years that pained him and Harry just opened them all up again.
Harry smiled at him as he opened his eyes again and held up his hand. Thierry almost automatically raised his own and they put their palms together, fingers aligned just as their tribe had done, a sign of trust and most of all a dependency on the tribe. He turned to Hannah. "I am well aware that it was in the final battle between the shapeshifters and witches when the myths of angels came to be. My battle partner and I joined the fight, the last of our kind, and with our aid the witches were able to subdue the Amaru but it was not without cost but to the humans and witches we were two angels from heaven that came to save them. I have heard of angels all my life, it was a source of strength for me. My proof that my kind were not completely forgotten."
"This is amazing." She told him. "May I?" She asked as she reached out a hand. Harry nodded and opened his right wing and pulled it around in front of him, having to put it at a strange angle so it didn't block them from view. The dark blue feathers shimmered in the lights from the windows and they flickered light across her face as she ran her fingers down the feathers. She pulled back a moment later and smiled at him. "It's an honour to meet you, Harry. Especially when I now know the sacrifice you have made to try to save me from Maya. I cannot thank you enough for that."
"Thierry..." Harry sighed and pulled his wings back against his back and with a ripple they blurred and vanished into his back, making him look identical to a normal human. "This war you are planning to fight. What is it?"
"We do not know." Thierry shook his head. "Only that the ten thousand year old cycle is upon us again with the millennium."
"Fire, Ice and Water." Harry nodded. "I have not heard about that since..." He trailed off.
"Since when?" Hannah asked when he just frowned.
"I am not sure." He shook his head. "I have not sorted out that life yet. I know of that concept though. That the world would be rewritten for each race. Amaru ruled, then the great fires signalled the war between us, the shapeshifters and the Witches and then the Witches ruled for ten thousand years. The ice age struck and Maya and her Vampires took over the world and then lastly the global floods signalled the change to human supremacy. Who is left, Thierry?"
"We are hoping that this time it can be a change so that all races may live together in harmony." Thierry told him.
Harry chuckled but let himself smile at Thierry. "You were ever the optimist, Thierry-brother."
"And you were the realist." Thierry nodded.
"And what I realise is that some events cannot be prevented, as much as you'd like them to." Harry spoke simply.
"Will you try?" Thierry asked. "With me, like old times."
"Old times?" Harry couldn't help but laugh. "By my recollection I only buried you a few months ago."
Thierry shook his head at Harry's humour before fixing him with a look. Harry sighed. "My life does not belong to just myself anymore, Thierry. I cannot give away my life without talking to him about it."
"Nobody is talking about that." Hannah spoke up with a gasp of shock.
"Hana, I have seen a lot over many years and the one thing that has never changed is that wars cost lives. More than you ever imagine possible beforehand. Some wars cost far too much and they are not worth fighting, even for the best of reasons." Harry sighed. "I have already fought a war like that and it cost me much of my sanity. I struggle now to even grip a small amount of hope." He stepped forwards and took Thierry's left hand in his own and Hannah's right in his own right hand. "This lifetime I have witnessed everything I know being taken from me in the most brutal manner imaginable and then lost enough lives to thousands more wars and deaths, my own included. I don't honestly know how much more I can give but I will try."
"Why?" Thierry asked as Harry made to pull back. He gripped Harry's hand tighter to stop him from retreating. "If you feel like you cannot stand another war than why help us at all?"
"Do not judge me, Thierry." Harry sighed.
"I do not judge you or blame you for the results of your past lives." Thierry shook his head. "But if you don't want to fight then I can ensure your safety."
"Until you fall." Harry sighed. "That is why."
"What do you mean?" Hannah asked.
"You are lucky, Hana." Harry sighed. "You may turn and be with Thierry for eternity or you can grow old and die and when you reawaken in your new life you can search him out."
"Cameron." Thierry breathed out the word in sadness. "I see."
"This life is all I have with him and there is an end to it with no future. I will live on in more lives but he shall not. This life is the last life I want to live because I cannot imagine existing without him." Harry sighed out. "I must fight to protect the world so that Cameron and I can make the most of the time together that we have."
Before Harry could react Thierry was hugging him tightly. "I'm sorry about all the time between then and now, Ryn." Thierry whispered to him though loud enough for Hannah to hear.
"How about we get something brought up for us to eat and drink and we can bring the others back in?" Hannah offered with a smile as Harry and Thierry separated. Harry nodded and while the two turned to the phone Harry sat down on the piano stool and opened the lid again and ran his fingers over the keys. His fingers found a series of notes and he shut his eyes and merely let his fingers do what they wanted and before he knew it he was playing out a soft melody that hadn't been heard in hundreds of years and before that in thousands. He knew the melody from his time as A'Zia, it was a funeral song that had survived from the earliest years of his people until the final days when the pyres had burned high with their dead. It seemed fitting after all of the people he had known that had died so recently in his mind.
He finished it and finally opened his eyes and heard a light pattering of applause and he turned in surprised to find the room full again. He'd been playing the long melody for almost ten minutes and Thierry and Hana's guests had re-entered the room. James and Poppy the Vampire Soulmates, Thea and Eric the witch and human Soulmates, Ash the vampire and this time also Aradia with Quinn, Rashel, Tamarack, Jez and Nicky and of course Cameron whose mind touched Harry's and soothed him. He at least didn't have to wonder why that melody was so saddening.
"That was beautiful." Aradia told him. Harry turned around on the piano stood and moved to the end of it and Cameron took the invitation and sat behind him and wrapped his arms around Harry's waist. Harry allowed himself a smile. Aradia could really appreciate the beauty in music.
"It sounds better on the instruments it is designed for." Harry told her.
"What instrument is that?" James asked.
"A Vishta." Harry said simply.
"A what?" Ash asked with raised eyebrows.
"I don't think one has existed in a long time." He said simply. "My tribe used them but they were lost along with my tribe."
"What was that melody?" Poppy asked.
"A funeral song." Harry told her simply. "To be played with the pyres of war. There were different songs for other types of death. They are a little more upbeat."
"Can you play us something else?" Hana asked.
"I do not know about on the piano." Harry said. "I do not have that life sorted yet. I do not know when I learned to play it." He looked around the room and took in the other back wall where he'd noticed nicely presented instruments. "Do you keep them working?" He asked Thierry.
"Of course." Thierry nodded.
Harry smiled and stood up and walked over to a violin and as he moved he began to feel more and more like John, a poverty stricken man taken in to play for the royal family. A master with a violin but even as he lifted the violin from its stand and tested the bow he knew that somewhere in his mind he could play the violoncello as well. From another lifetime that was moving to the fore of his mind with the idea of playing the violin. He ignored it and turned back to the room and raised the violin and started playing the slow beginning of Palladio, it was a rather modern piece but it wasn't a major stretch for John to be able to play it with the memory and it didn't lose anything without the accompanying instruments though as he played it the other life came further into the forefront since the piece relied so heavily on the cello part and as he continued to play his sight began to blur and though his hands and fingers moved with perfection his mind was lost elsewhere.
He looked up from his sheet music and gave a cursory glance over the audience of the massive theatre in the United States' capital city before looking back for a glance at his sheet music even though it was only for the performance since he knew this music to the last note and he'd practiced it with his three brothers so much that he knew it all perfectly. There was no conductor, nothing but himself, his three brothers and two thousand of the richest and most important people in the United States, including the President, celebrating the turn of the new century. Palladio reverberated throughout the theatre instilling the normal awe that such powerful music created in the listening, making them part of something greater, pulling them out of their bodies and away from the world of pain and chaos and into something more brilliant that life itself. At least that's how Carter saw it and he knew that was what his older brothers saw too.
He was walking towards their car parked behind the stadium amongst his older brothers when something shot from the shadows and before he, Jacob and Sammy could react, Peter, their eldest brother vanished from sight. They heard a sharp cry of pain and before Carter could ask Jacob and Sammy were grabbing him, pulling their fourteen year old brother between them, protecting him. He was their baby brother and always would be.
"Who's there?" Sammy, his eighteen year old brother called into the darkness. A shape moved in the shadows and Carter clutched to Sammy's arm tightly even as his brother pulled him behind himself.
Another shadow moved on their right and Jacob moved around them, blocking Carter again but even as Carter turned he felt Jacob being yanked away from him and he turned back only in enough time to feel hot blood spray his face. "Jake?" He gasped out. "Jake!" Sammy pulled him against his front, hiding him from the view of their brother lying in an ever growing pool of blood.
"Someone help us!" Sammy yelled and, even as the words echoed through the alleyway, light burst behind Carter's eyes.
The bow screeched as Harry flinched and he came back to reality with a shudder of pain and took a step back. Cameron moved so fast he was catching Harry before Harry realised where he was. He turned and buried his head into Cameron's chest and merely hid as he restrained his need to cry for his two brothers.
"Harry?" Thea asked but didn't get a response so tried again. "Cameron? Is he alright?"
"I think playing the music brought another of his lives to the foreground." Cameron said.
"Maybe we should leave you?" Aradia offered and her voice was strained.
Harry pulled away and although his eyes were damp he wouldn't cry in front of so many people. He didn't need to cry but part of him wanted to cry for them but he knew that he already had. He and Sammy had survived that night because of Kinen's hunting instincts that had flashed into his life and let him kill the two werewolves that had attacked his brothers and himself that night for mere sport.
"It's fine." Harry told them.
"What happened?" Eric asked.
"His mind is splintered into two main sections." Aradia said calmly and Harry watched her as she spoke. Clearly she could see his mind quite clearly. "An inner core containing his current life and the memories and personalities of all of the lives he has recognised and accepted into himself. The second part is the outer core which is a chaotic mess of lives that he has not yet remembered. Occasionally a memory from one of these will brush the inner core and he'll remember a skill or a person. What just happened is one of the lives that was on the outer core was pulled into the centre by his playing and merged with his whole being."
Harry nodded to show she was about right. "Before there was a fog between what I knew and what was still hidden. It only released one life at a time and shielded me from the rest until I could accept more. That mist is now gone. Every thought I have pulls at one or more of the lives I do not yet know. It is... confusing."
"Perhaps you need some peace and quiet?" Aradia suggested. "I witnessed what you just lived through. I did not try to but sometimes it is that way with me. I am sorry for the lives of your friends."
"You just witnessed the event, you don't see anything more?" Harry asked noticing her lack of knowledge.
"I only witness what can be witnessed through the eyes." She told him with an ironic smile.
"They were my brothers." He told her. "Jake and Peter. Sammy and I survived."
Ash raised his hand. "I'm still confused." Thea promptly hit him on the arm.
Harry sighed and sat down on the piano stool again and Cameron sat behind him. "Carter was my name and it was 1900 and I was fourteen. My three older brothers, Peter, Jake, Sammy and I were playing in Washington DC for the turn of the century celebrations for the President and about two thousand other people. A string quartet. Our mother taught us when we were younger until our father..." Harry swallowed. "Until he murdered her because he caught her spending too much time with another man who was actually her doctor because she had cancer and was going to die. I was eight at the time. After the performance we were walking to our car behind the theatre when we were attacked. Peter was killed before we saw anything and Jake was killed in front of Sammy and I."
"Killed by what?" James asked.
"Werewolves." Aradia spoke up sadly. "For sport by what I witnessed."
"We'd never been involved in the Night World and until that attack I wasn't awakened. They had no reason to go after us. They just wanted some fun." Harry hung his head and felt Cameron nuzzle the back of his neck, placing a kiss on his spine that sent reassuring tingles down his back. "I think we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kinen and Ryn came to my rescue though and I killed one and ran off the other but that was too late for Peter and Jake. I'm not sure what happened to Sammy but I died at the age of nineteen of something they couldn't diagnose. I remember that Sammy and I played a last performance for the President and the King of England in remembrance of our brothers and because we knew I was dying."
"Now you know how confusing this is for him." Cameron spoke up even as he grabbed Harry's hands in his own and pulled them across his front, holding him in place because he could feel the small shivers running through him. "He only zoned out for a few seconds."
"And lived a lifetime." Hannah sighed.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Two days later
Harry was sitting out on one of the large balconies on the back of the house with Cameron and Jez on either side, bare chested, enjoying the Nevada desert sun. Harry didn't often get time to just relax. Harry had been sleeping but since yet another of his lives had come to the foreground he couldn't get back to sleep. He'd witnessed the lives of three more people since arriving at Thierry's mansion. He'd been a boy called Archer by his mother because she wanted him away from the fighting and he'd dutifully become an archer of the English army during the invasions of Wales. He'd been a boy called Icarus after the recent Greek fable and had become a scholar of the Temple of Zeus in Olympia and finally his life as a pianist came to the foreground, a man named Paul who had played for the British Colonies in the Americas.
He also saw a couple of memories which concerned him but that apart from showing Cameron he kept to himself because of something he saw in one. Of caves, brotherhoods and something through the ages but now gone. He knew he'd been involved in something big but he couldn't yet say what it was only that it had involved A'zia greatly.
"I thought I'd find you boy's out here loafing in the sun again." Tamarack sighed as she walked out and saw the three of them lounging. Harry grumbled something unpleasant in old Japanese and turned towards Cameron, putting his head on his chest and an arm around him. They'd yet to move their relationship beyond kissing and holding each other because Harry was generally in turmoil all the time and because Cameron, dealing with the chaotic nature of Harry's bond as they slept was having trouble getting much rest.
"I don't think Imazato would approve of what you just said, Harry." Cameron told him.
"You speak... uh... what the hell was that?" Tamarack trailed off.
"Ancient Japanese." Cameron told her. "And I don't speak it but Harry's thoughts are perfectly clear. And not nice." He said swatting Harry on the back of the head lightly.
"What did he say?" She asked.
"Something about an aversion to sunlight." Cameron smiled clearly unwilling to go into the rest of it but Tamarack just stared at him until he caved. "He merely commented on the ugliness of the creature formed from the mating of a rat and a toad. How sunlight has anything to do with that I don't know."
Tamarack pulled a face before clocking Harry on the back of the head though it was only a tap with her Vampiric strength. "Just because you can curse us in a dozen different languages doesn't mean we have to put up with it."
"It's eleven if you don't count dialect changes." Harry corrected and sat up.
"Whatever." She grumbled before leaning down and pecking Jez on the lips who just laughed afterwards and smiled at Harry happily. "I only came because Thierry's guest has arrived and he and Aradia are waiting to introduce you to her."
"As what?" He asked. "It's not like I'm special to anyone else."
"I believe they wish to tell her of your involvement in the vision that Aradia saw." Tamarack said knowing that Harry had talked to Aradia about that since she'd recognised him from it even if she hadn't made a major deal out of it.
Harry grumbled and stood up. He owed it to Thierry to do what the Vampire wanted after all. He and Cameron made their way back into their room and changed into fresh clothing before Harry turned to Cameron. "If this woman is important do you really want to announce your involvement with a human to her?"
"Involvement?" Cameron asked with raised eyebrows before he closed the gaps. "I'm more than involved with you, Harry. I'm so deeply ingrained into every part of you that I could never bare being separated from you. I'll stand before my own father and tell him that."
"Oh, that'll go down well." Harry rolled his eyes. " The King of the Shapeshifters kills his own son for falling for a tour guide at the Zoo."
Cameron choked and punched him on the arm. Harry just smiled at him. "You're sure?"
"I don't care what the Night World thinks." Cameron told him. "I'd send every newspaper in the world the announcement if it means being with you. Damn the consequences."
Harry kissed him soundly putting his hands on his stomach and gripping his nice shirt in his hands. Cameron put his hands on Harry's side and almost on instinct alone Harry's wings opened out behind him and cocooned them both in darkness lightly caressing Cameron's back with soft feathers. It was a good thing that their door was locked from the inside. Over the last few days Harry had taken to sleeping half on his front and half on Cameron with his wings out. To start with it had just been after his nightmares that they'd opened and then he'd started falling back to sleep with them open to comfort him. Now it seemed Cameron was merely using them as a blanket as well.
Harry opened his wings again and stepped back but didn't retract them until Cameron had run his hands down the edges of the massive wing span. After hiding them from anyone else they headed out into the corridor to find one of Thierry's Vampires awaiting them and with twin Sirs he greeted them both, Cameron as the Prince of Shapeshifters as he was and Harry because of his standing in the world as an Old Soul. The Vampire led them down to the same gallery as they'd first been led to and he left as soon as they'd seen the four people waiting in the room. Thierry, of course, and Hana as well as Aradia and a woman who looked like she was probably at least ninety years old. Cameron's mind reached out and touched Harry's as his fingers ghosted over Harry's arm and a mental connection was opened around their Soulmate bond.
"That's the Crone of all the Witches. Everyone calls her Grandma Harmen. The only people in the Night World that don't respect her are the pompous Vampires. My parents always make a point of remaining on her good side." Cameron told him. "I've never met her though, not up close."
Harry and Cameron walked the rest of the distance and Harry couldn't help but meet the Crone's stare with one of his own. "Harry, Cameron." Thierry spoke up happily. "May I introduce to you the Crone of all Witches, Grandma Harmen." He said before turning to the side to face her. "I'm sure you've heard of Cameron Drache, Prince of the Shapeshifters. This is his human Soulmate, Harry Potter."
"The Old Soul that Aradia told me about." The elderly Witch nodded her head seriously. "You've gotten yourself into trouble I see. And what, only a month or so after getting your memories."
Harry watched her for a moment, assessing her. "Well normally by this point I'm already dead so maybe this time I'm actually doing well."
"Harry..." Thierry warned and Harry noticed that he hadn't called him Ryn. Perhaps the Crone would know the name and he didn't want to throw it in so soon.
"If you tell me to respect my elders I'm merely going to laugh at you, Thierry." Harry said simply.
Thierry looked shocked even as Cameron tried not to laugh but it was the Crone that broke the silence with an amused snort of laughter. "It's nice to have someone with some guts around here, willing to put Thierry in his place. Not to mention old hags like me."
Harry nodded to her. "I was putting Thierry in his place long before today."
"Is that so?" She asked with a devilish grin.
"You remind me of someone." Harry smiled gently and turned to Thierry. "Do you see it? Looks and attitude."
"I'm not sure who you mean." Thierry frowned but Harry wasn't surprised. Harry remembered her like he'd seen her merely a month ago whereas Thierry hadn't seen her in millennia.
"Hecate." Harry smiled. "She had the same 'take no crap' attitude that you do, my Lady." Harry said showing the first bit of proper respect. "She'd like you."
"So you have lived in the same tribe as Hecate, Thierry, Hellewise and... Maya?" She asked.
"I did." Harry nodded. "Thierry was as much trouble then as he is now."
"Would we please stop ganging up on me?" Thierry asked clearly unused to being shown up like this. Cameron was sniggering quietly but Harry knew he was merely happy to see Harry having fun.
"You're name then?" She asked with a frown.
"This is Ryn." Thierry said with all seriousness. "I told you about him."
"And so did the legends." She nodded. "The human that defied Maya and hid Thierry from her even when it cost him his life. Hecate wrote of you in what little literature has survived from that day."
"Was it good?" Harry asked childishly getting a slap on the arm from a clearly amused Cameron.
"I'm sorry, Prince Cameron." The Crone smiled. "I seem to have overlooked you completely. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I have met your older brother and younger sisters before but you have always seemed to allude me. Does your father know of this?"
"No. He believes me to still be in England." Cameron shook his head.
"I see. What about your brother?" She pressed.
"He will learn of Harry as soon as Harry has recovered." Cameron told her. "I have faith in my brother's reaction."
"And you had faith in Lord Thierry's judgement that you brought your human Soulmate down before the Crone of the Witches who is sworn just as Thierry is to order both of your deaths?" She asked plaintively.
"Harry." He felt a voice not his own or Cameron's speaking to him, a light ghosting over his mind but even with just that it found itself faced with a single entity made up of all of them. "I wish to tell both Aradia and the Crone of your true involvement. Only they can truly help you."
"Thierry." Harry sent in return and knew that Cameron, though still trying to come up with a response to the Crone's statement heard him and had heard Thierry since he had paused. "Alright, brother."
Harry didn't move but the world froze around him and he left go of Cameron's hand and moved across the room and over to the window that looked out across a frozen world and he merely stood there for a time. What would he honestly do if Thierry asked him to join this war of theirs? Would he fight for them, use Liam, Imazato, Ryn, A'zia and dozens more to aid him in fighting or would he merely protect those he loved and leave the war to destroy everything. The answer was obvious really, the future couldn't be changed, it had already been decided just like the extinction of his race had been decided. Clearly whatever power controlled all of this had brought him back time and time again for a reason, clearly it had recreated him in the image of his original race for a reason and it wouldn't be merely to watch the world die. But he wouldn't be a warrior for them. He'd be a protector. If he could protect somebody and they needed it then he'd do what he could but he wouldn't lose his only life with Cameron for a war for a world that had destroyed his life so many times over.
He unfroze the world and turned to face the five in the middle of the room as they flinched at Harry's disappearance. "That is all on the assumption that I am without the ability to look after myself." Harry said quietly making the two Witches, Shapeshifter, Vampire and Old Soul turn to look at him. "I have seen much in my existence, Crone of the Witches, I have fought against much of the world. It has done everything to me that it can think of, it has made me a slave to Vampires, a hunter of them in turn. It has made me a scared boy chasing Shapeshifter clans across the world to avenge my tribe. It has had me cry over countless loved ones. The only pain it can cause me now is to take Cameron away from me and one day it will do that as well but I'll be damned if I let it take him before we have lived. You want me to help you and I shall but not for the Night World that has burned me alive, drained my blood. Not for any of that but for Cameron and the people I care about."
"And if helping us ensures the continued safety of your loved ones?" She asked.
"Then that will be a coincidence." Harry told her simply.
"And how is it that you can move like that?" She asked. "You are human, an Old Soul."
"The oldest of beings will rise from the world long covered by ash." Harry said but his words were not in English but in the tongue that Hecate had first cast that prophecy. She frowned in confusion and Thierry came to her rescue and translated it. "The exact original that Thierry and I heard from Hecate."
"It is you?" Aradia asked.
"Do your visions make sense now?" Harry asked. "I have always been human, being reborn over and over again through thirty thousand years but the first time I was different. My Soul is not the exact same as a humans."
"Thirty thousand years?" The Crone asked in surprise.
"From the days where the Amaru ruled the Shapeshifters and humans." Harry nodded.
"Amaru?" She frowned. "I have heard that word before but where?"
"It means Dragon." Harry said. "In the tongue of the Ancient Mayans thirty thousand years ago. My kind never needed a name for them except enemy. We were their enemy from the day they came into being for ten thousand years until the world burst into fire and both of our races battled to the end. I was there at the last battle between humans, Witches, the Shapeshifters and the greatest of the Amaru."
"The Angels." Aradia gasped. "You were one of them."
"He is." Thierry spoke softly and Harry slowly reached out with his wings, showing yet another two people his greatest secret. Finally he was able to open them to their full extent and they almost touched the ends of the long gallery. Over ten metres of dark blue wings blotting out the light from the window. He pulled them in again too quickly for his liking but they couldn't risk one of Thierry's servants opening the door and seeing him like this.
"Amazing." The Crone said and looked to Aradia, "My dear, if you could see."
Aradia smiled. "I see it clearly enough in your mind."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
A month later
Harry had taken to writing about each of his lives in a journal that Cameron had brought him. It was a nice leather bound one with really nice pages and had probably cost him a fortune and when one of the witches of Thierry's household had asked him what he was writing in it she'd disappeared off and returned with a black leather strap which she'd promptly put over it and with a drop of his blood and about ten minutes of spells and herbs she'd cast an enchantment on the strap that prevented anyone but himself from opening it. She'd told him that nobody but Harry had the right to read it.
Harry had been shocked by how quickly the Night People there had accepted him into their midst. He'd met dozens of members of Circle Daybreak since arriving there and now that he and Cameron had agreed to join them they really belonged there. Thierry spent what time he could with Harry when he wasn't doing official Night World duties or attending Night World Council things but Hana spent a lot of time with either Nicky, who she got on with famously, or Harry. Jez and Tamarack disappeared for a couple of weeks and Harry and Cameron were the only ones that knew where'd they'd gone. Jez had been worried that Tamarack, who took orders from Circle Daybreak, would get in trouble for disappearing but Tamarack had pointed out that because of what Harry was he was automatically really high up in their hierarchy. Harry had promptly told her and Jez to go spend some time together and they'd promptly gone.
Most of the time Harry spent solving the mess of his mind and to join with the seventeen lives he'd known about before the past month he'd discovered thirty-five more but he quickly discovered that the more the lives related to his situation the early they'd come to exist and while about half of the new lives were painful to him not many of them involved the Night World. There was now only one life left to him, lying out in the distant edge of his mind but although the odd short memory from it flashed across his dreams at night it stubbornly remained out of reach, even from Cameron when they joined their minds together. It was surrounded by a faint fog which thickened the more Harry reached for it and he and Cameron couldn't work out why it was there. Harry had decided that perhaps it was such a terrible life that Harry had rejected it and repressed it away and that thought scared him. In all of his lives he'd been proud of his actions, he'd been a good person and Cameron had told him that was because his Soul was good and always would be but he felt that maybe this life was repressed because of what he'd done in that lifetime. Maybe he'd been a bad person and now he couldn't accept it.
As the holidays came to a close Harry and Cameron prepared for a time when they'd no longer be able to spend every moment of the day with each other and Tamarack and Jez went through the same thing. Nicky just told Cameron and Tamarack that she was glad because she'd get her two boys back under her thumb. Nicky had been really good, even though Jez and Harry were distracted she never complained and took to befriending Hannah, who alone for most of the time while Thierry was working, was glad for the company.
Soon Harry, Jez and Nicky would be getting an apartment in a nice section of Los Vegas to stay in together while they were at Prima, paid for by the expedition team. They were only going to be a ten minute drive from the mansion, less for a Vampire running the distance and Thierry had already told Harry that he'd be there in a flash if there was ever any danger but there'd always be someone nearby in case and they'd all been giving a series of numbers for Thierry's security detail and for members of Circle Daybreak.
But returning to work wasn't what was on Harry and Cameron's mind as they drove into the city to a posh restaurant that was barely involved in the Night World but that Harry knew was surrounded by Thierry's security just to make sure that any Night Worlder that came near the place was watched. As the two walked inside they were greeted by the manager who had been expecting them, on Thierry's booking, and were taken to a private area to dine. Cameron had been fidgeting all week since they'd booked the meal and his nervousness went up several notches as they got closer to their table but it wasn't the table that made Cameron nervous but the young man sitting at it, Cameron's older brother, Galen."
As the manager pulled back the velvet curtain on the doorway and held it open for them the young man came into view. For a moment Harry thought that Cameron didn't want to go through but then Harry realised that the hushed conversations in the room had completely vanished. He glanced around taking in the odd moment where waiters paused mid serving, where people stopped talking and merely seemed to stare at each other. One young man sitting with his family was surreptitiously looking at another young man on the next table in admiration except he could only risk a fleeting glance so that his family didn't see but in Harry's moment the young man could really stare at him, even if he wouldn't know it.
Harry turned back to the reason he'd inadvertently frozen time and he studied Cameron's older brother. He had the same light brown hair but his was more tamed than Cameron's, his eyes were a light blue like Cameron's but with a small silver hint to them that belied his Dragon blood more than Cameron's did but Harry had Cameron's mind to remind him what was in his blood. Galen's eyes were frozen but they still showed his intelligent gaze and the warmth there at sighting his younger brother was clear.
Harry released his grip on the world and Cameron moved to block the door as he walked through and Harry thanked the manager who paused in the doorway after Harry had moved through. Galen clearly realised that Cameron had brought a guest, even if the three table settings hadn't already told him that and he rose from his seat and hugged Cameron in greeting. Harry noticed that Galen already had a glass of wine and he turned to the manager who nodded to show he'd take the order.
"The same as what he has please." Harry requested. Clearly the manager was in awe of Thierry enough to not mention that they were both under twenty-one and he left straight away. Cameron would need a bit of alcohol to calm his nerves.
"Galen, this is Harry. Harry this is my older brother Galen." Cameron said as he stepped out of the way. Galen offered his hand and Harry returned the gesture shaking his hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Harry." Galen greeted and cast a very quick glance at Cameron and Harry knew why. Galen was wondering why Cameron had brought a human with him.
"Cameron has not been able to stop talking about you since we met." Harry told him.
"You're British?" Galen asked in surprise clearly recognising his accent even though it was barely discernable with so much dilution with his other lives. In an instant he could be talking French, Japanese, Ancient Babylonian or even the language from his first life which didn't even have a name but was close to Mayan.
"I'm about to begin studying at Prima." Harry told him. "I've been asked to join an expedition to South America. We'll be at Prima for about six months before we leave."
"Prima?" Galen asked politely. "Is that the veterinary college?"
Harry nodded but it was Cameron that spoke. "Could we sit down?" Even as he said it a waiter came in with his and Cameron's drinks and placed them on the table before leaving again without a word. Cameron sat in the seat next to his brothers while Harry sat on his other side and opposite where Galen sat. Galen looked to his brother again and Harry could see the confusion there and the brief flickering of worry.
"You don't have to worry about your brother's safety." Harry told Galen. "I'm well aware of the danger he is in by being around a human but we are well protected."
"Harry!" Cameron gasped out in shock.
"Well you were clearly going to spend the evening beating around the bush and you haven't seen your brother in months so I only thought it right that we deal with the pink elephant at the table, or human at the table so to speak, and get it out of the way." Harry shrugged and Galen looked at his brother in undisguised concern.
"Before you accuse me of anything, Galen, I didn't tell him a thing." Cameron raised his hands in surrender.
Galen turned back to Harry and stared at him with interest but the worry for his brother was still clear in his mind and with a flicker of his eyes Harry knew he was focusing internally and a moment later he felt an intrusion against his mind. "I won't fight that, Galen, because you'll see what you definitely don't want to witness but if I were you I wouldn't go poking around. There's more in there than you can imagine."
"Galen!" Cameron smacked his brother on the arm. "Get out of his head!"
"No." Harry said simply. "If he wants to make sure his little brother is safe and he thinks that searching my thoughts is the way to do it then let him. He'll soon try to find another way."
Galen frowned but looked back at Harry and his mind slipped inside again and although it was subtle it brushed one of the crystalline structures that held part of his life, the life most at the forefront right now which was Carter's. They were dealing with the acceptance of Cameron's brother so it was only natural that the part of him that thought of itself as Carter was at the forefront, making his decisions and trusting that the bond between brothers could never be destroyed. He witnessed with a flash Carter's own dedication to his older brothers as an emotion and then the loss at their deaths before a snap shot of watching Jake having his throat torn apart by the claws of a werewolf.
Galen jerked back so hard that his chair rocked back onto its back legs. Harry turned to look at Cameron but without contact he couldn't mentally tell him that it was Carter and he didn't want to say it out loud. Galen stared at Harry with a frown. "You're an Old Soul?" He asked, slightly unsure. Harry nodded and Galen shook himself. "I did not recognise the signs in your mind of such a thing. Was that how you learnt of our world?"
"In that life time, yes." Harry nodded.
"Why did you show me that one?" Galen asked.
"It was random, not intentional, but still I suppose those memories were at the fore because of the situation. I never had to worry about my older brothers' reactions to anything when I was Carter. Carter understood love for a brother. I, as Harry Potter, do not as I have no family that I love." Harry explained, half to Cameron and half to Galen. "It is my way of understanding what Cameron hopes from you. Complete understanding and acceptance."
"Understanding for what?" Galen turned to Cameron. "What have you done, Cam?"
"In fairness it wasn't by choice." Cameron defended. "It happened and we can't control it."
"Having relationships can be controlled." Galen told Cameron simply. "You just don't let it affect you. We've had this conversation before for the both of us. The Laws are there and they're not to be trifled with. Harry might not have known that but..."
"Harry did know that." Harry spoke up. "Or rather Alexis did when he and his best friend, a witch, were killed for befriending each other."
"And I don't care about the laws." Cameron told his brother sharply. "And you wouldn't either if you were in my situation."
"I've fancied humans before Cameron." Galen shook his head. "You forget about them and you move on. Even if you think it's worth the chance they might not and it's their necks on the line as well, not just yours."
"Literally." Harry muttered.
"Galen, this isn't just a fancy." Cameron told his brother. "This is greater than that."
"Because you let it be." Galen turned to Harry. "I'm sorry if I am offending you, Harry. I have no problem with humans but..."
"This is your younger brother." Harry nodded. "I understand but perhaps you should listen to your brother for a moment and then find out whether getting rid of me is really an option."
"It's not that I want to be rid of you, Harry." Galen shook his head. "But Cameron is my brother and I'll protect him from anything including relationships that would get him killed."
"Galen." Cameron sighed and grabbed his brother's chin with his left hand and turned him to look at him. "Harry's my Soulmate."
Galen stared at him without really realising what he'd said until his eyes widened in shock and then a little horror before resignation. Harry chuckled. "I'm sorry Galen, but we really didn't have a choice in the matter and we still don't."
Cameron let go of his brother's chin with a depressed sigh and Galen turned to Harry. He put his elbows on the table and rested his head on his hands, hiding his mouth behind his hands. "You're in a shit-load of trouble, Cam." Galen sighed. "What if dad finds out?"
"He won't find out." Cameron frowned. "Unless you plan on turning us in."
"Don't be stupid, Cameron." Galen half snapped. "I'd never do that and you knew that before you walked in here, so don't bring it up now just to throw me off guard."
Harry laughed and took a sip of his wine to hide his smile when Cameron turned to him with a mild glare. "He does have a point, Cameron." Harry pointed out as he put his glass down. "You knew when you first realised what I was to you that getting Galen to keep us a secret was never the issue. What you hoped for was that Galen didn't try to talk you into ditching me for your protection or trying to get rid of me himself."
"I never said that!" Cameron frowned at him.
"You didn't have to." Harry smiled at him. "We spend so much time sorting out my mind and so little time in yours but I still know you like I know myself. It's instinctual for me to know how you feel, what you desire and how you want people to see you."
They were interrupted when the waiter opened the door and they went about ordering some nice food on Galen's wallet and only when the waiter left did Cameron turn back to his brother. "Please I have to know. He's my Soulmate and I love him too much to ever not protect him. I might not be able to protect him from what has happened in his other lives but I can do what I can to protect him in this one. Will you help me?"
"That's what you want isn't it?" Galen asked him. "You know I'll keep it a secret and you know I'll accept you and him together. What you're not sure of is whether I'll protect him or not?"
"That's what I want to know." Cameron growled out almost impatiently.
"Shh, Cam." Harry chuckled. "He's trying to make a point."
"Thank you, Harry." Galen nodded.
"Oh and you know what the point is I suppose?" Cameron turned on Harry.
"I think I do yes." Harry nodded before looking at Galen. "May I?"
"Go ahead." Galen smiled.
"What he's saying is that you want him to help you protect me but that's not a reason to make him want to protect me." Harry told him. "What he wants is for his little brother to be happy and to be safe and he now knows what your greatest fear is. The worst fear you've ever had in your life and the greatest challenge he'll ever have in order to protect you. Your worst fear is losing me just as mine is losing you. He can't stop you fearing that but he can do what he can to protect you from having to deal with that fear becoming reality. So he won't help you protect me like you want. He's protect you from what you fear and to do that he'll do what he can to protect me."
"You're very astute." Galen raised his eyebrows. "That's better worded than what I was going to say but very true."
"I might look nineteen but I'm not." Harry shrugged.
"So...?" Cameron grabbed his brother's arm and leaned into the table. "What?"
Galen chuckled and looked at his brother. "Anything you need, anytime, brother. Just like always."
Harry smiled at the two as Cameron's breathed out a relieved sigh and dropped his head and relaxed. Harry nudged him with his foot and Cameron looked to the right and up at him with a strained smile. Harry returned it seeing the happiness flickering in Cameron's eyes.
"So, Harry." Galen spoke up as their meals arrived promptly. "Why don't you tell me about yourself?"
Harry waited for the waiters to leave. "You'll have to be a little more specific on that one, Galen."
Galen frowned and his brother came to the rescue. "There's a lot there to learn, Galen." Cameron told him with a laugh. "Harry tells me everything he can but there's a lot more that he hasn't had the time to tell me in almost a month and a half."
"How about just this lifetime then?" Galen tried.
Harry nodded. "I was born in Britain as a Wizard, you know about those?" Galen nodded with a slight narrowing of his eyes. "My parents were murdered by Voldemort when I was too young to remember them and I was raised, neglected and abused by my mother's sister, her husband and son until I was eleven and the Wizards 'collected' me to train up to be their tool. For six years I was their weapon until I finally killed Voldemort two years ago and lost the only other two people I'd loved in this lifetime up till then. After that they tried to turn me into a long term weapon for them, to fight their battles but I renounced their form of bastardised magic and fled into the normal world. Passed my A-levels in half a year and enrolled at the Royal Veterinary College as a BVetMed student. Got a summer job the next year working with the vets at Marwell Zoo in Hampshire and then Cameron showed up one day and that night everything started to unravel in my mind. All my old lives. Then he showed up with your parents and sisters. After that I knew what he was and luckily he stayed in England and we got a chance to know each other."
"Then the Wizards captured him because they wanted their weapon back and Tamarack had to rescue him from enough torture that it almost drove him insane." Cameron growled. "So we came out here early to get away from any more attempts and because his boss offered him a place on the Prima expedition."
Cameron really sounded pissed as he spoke and his brother studied him for a moment before turning back to Harry. "I'm sorry to say I wasn't quite expecting a life story that horrible. How can you manage to say it so easily?"
"You mean because it's really irritated Cameron just to hear it?" Harry asked. "I have worse lives in my mind."
"Like what?" Galen asked.
"Galen!" Cameron argued. "You can't ask him something like that!"
"It's alright, Cameron." Harry reached out and gently touched his arm and instantly Cameron's mind surged to his and Harry pushed across every reassuring thought he had. "I have a few rather bad ones. Some as slaves in the Night World, others when my death has been nothing less than horrifying but I also have lives that give me the skills I need so that I can stay safe in this life so that Cameron and I can survive and make a life together and so that we can be happy."
"You can't say that Lucus' death gives you anything?" Cameron frowned and Harry new that out of all of his deaths Cameron was effected the most by that one, possibly because it was unique and was the one that Harry most had nightmares about and because Cameron had been there to witness his reaction afterwards.
"Lucus' death was bad, Cameron." Harry sighed. "But Lucus' life was special."
"What happened to you?" Galen asked before correcting himself. "Lucus I mean?"
"Right now, because we're discussing Lucus I am more Lucus than I am any other person." Harry told him. "Lucus was a child in the sixteen hundreds and his parents were Witch Hunters and they used him as bait to lure out evil Witches. Except on one occasion they only managed to kill one witch and not both of them. That night the surviving Witch came back and kidnapped me. Tied me up and cast a spell on me, to keep me lucid and to prolong my life so that when they lit the fire under me I survived longer and the pain wasn't dulled for my drawn out death."
Galen shuddered. "Oh god."
"Cameron finds that death worse than the others because he was with me when I relived the life and it is strange to wake up after dying that way." Harry sighed. "I did not react well afterwards."
"I've never seen anyone in such a state, Galen." Cameron told him. "I can't describe what I felt but right then I knew I had to do everything to help Harry. No matter the cost. No matter the effort."
"Cameron cannot do much to protect me from my old lives and in the past I have accepted them all without dire consequence but he has been vital in letting me enjoy life again after everything I witnessed recently on top of the life I have already lived this time around." Harry told him.
"I respect you for your fortitude, Harry." Galen told him. "And no matter what pain it may cause my brother I can see that his love for you and the happiness you give him will outweigh any pain that loving you may cause him."
Cameron beamed at the acceptance and Harry changed the course of the conversation. "So, Galen, Cameron says that you are having as much trouble deciding on what animal to choose as he is? I'm training to be a vet and I'm good with animals. Why don't you tell me about yourself and maybe I can give you some advice as to what animal I think may suit you?"
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End Chapter