Chapter 56

Something was blaring in Aleda’s ears and she was not pleased. Not pleased at all. When ignoring it didn’t make the cacophony go bother somebody else, she flailed in the direction of the intrusive noise. Her second try did the trick; the alarm by her bed, now silenced, skittered across her dresser and crashed to the floor. She cracked her eyes and groaned.

It was still completely dark. Not even the lengthening days of mid-spring did any good—mainly because she was waking up three hours before dawn.

Oh bloody fecking balls, why had she agreed to go down to Rehoboth!? She could have gone out to Newark, up to the roof of one of the taller buildings, and she’d have been just fine. A person could catch the first light of dawn on the top of a skyscraper. But no-o-o-o. She had wanted to do it traditionally. Had to go to the coast.

She fell out of bed and muttered colorful imprecations against the equally obscene hour while she stumbled into the bathroom. Maybe a shower would wake her up.

Hah.

If she’d gotten to bed at five, like she’d said she would, maybe it would have helped. Hell, even if she had made it to bed by eight, or even ten, she would have been alright.

Thing is, she hadn’t gotten to sleep until well after eleven. Only a couple of hours ago. She was literally in pain. Frankly, she was lucky she didn’t just pass out in the shower and crack something open. Like her head. For once she found herself wishing they kept coffee in the house. Mom just had to be a tea drinker, didn’t she? So far, the only bit of grace was that her clothes for the day were already laid out on the chair: her red skirt, after Ryan’s reaction to her prom dress, and a blouse with a low-cut back to match. Mom had been very specific about that. And sandals, of course.

She had spent nearly the entire day before agonizing over what to wear. Even Mom had finally given her a hard time about it—she had been wearing borrowed, ill-fitted hand-me-downs found in the closet of the Manhattan apartment where Papá had been staying. Actually, those had probably been Talia’s clothes, come to think of it… But that didn’t fecking matter right now. What mattered was that Aleda was able, with very little effort, to get dressed even while staggering around like a half-woken zombie and not come downstairs looking like a blind circus accident.

This early in the morning, that was an accomplishment.

Mom met her downstairs in the kitchen with a bowl of cereal and glass of juice all ready for her. Mom, of course, was as bloody perky as she always was in the morning, even if this morning was still the middle of the bloody night. Probably got to sleep by six. She didn’t have anything to be nervous about.

For the love of mercy it was like walking around eating breakfast at night. Well, actually it was night. Although, technically, she supposed one could call it morning—the time on the clock was a.m. Sure didn’t feel like morning, though. She’d stayed up later than this working on homework, for the love of mercy.

Halfway through what, through a technicality, could be called breakfast, an all-too-familiar knock sounded at the front door. Ahh, now that took her back. It was all that morning needed to complete it, really—obscene hour, perky mother, and inextinguishably cheerful Talia. Instead of waiting for somebody to come to the door, though, she and her brother walked right in as if they lived there. Well, Ryan kind of did, at this point. Sometimes. She wouldn’t tell her papá that, of course. He was barely calming down as it was. Speaking of which…

“’Ey, M’m?” Aleda croaked out.

“Yeah, honey?”

“W’re’s P’pá?”

“He’s already down at the beach. I told you last night, remember? He wanted to make sure we’d be alone.”

“…Oh-h, yeah.”

Talia grinned at the girl and threw herself into the seat next to her at the table. “Poor kid,” she said. “Nobody should have to get up this early. You gonna make it?”

Aleda half-heartedly raised her eyebrows in a facial shrug. “Pro’ly,” she decided, and stabbed at her cornflakes with her spoon.

“Yeah, waking up when it’s dark out isn’t cool at all… and I bet you went to bed real early, too, right? Sun still up, all that. It’d be enough to make a person completely, utterly bonkers.”

She paused for a moment, pretending to be thoughtful. She turned around and grinned mischievously at her brother, who was helping Mom pack some stuff into a cooler. Aleda followed her gaze and laughed out loud. Ryan didn’t look over at them, but then again he didn’t really have to. He just rolled his eyes and kept helping Mom.

Aleda turned back to her cereal and yawned. “I wish I’d gotten to bed that early. Couldn’ get to sleep until really late.”

“Aah, well. You’ll be up and at ‘em in… what, two hours?” Talia said, glancing at the clock. “Hey, Aria, what time’s dawn?”

“Four forty-four,” she answered. “Everybody else is meeting us down there at four-thirty, except you two.” Mom looked up at the clock herself. “Oh, shoot, we’ve got to go! Ryan, I’ve got this—get Aleda into the car, would you?”

Aleda saw the emptied bowl and glass disappear from in front of her, and a few seconds later strong hands were lifting her out of her nice, comfy chair and half-carrying her to the front door. She yawned again and tried to concentrate on walking. “Jus’ so you know,” she mumbled. “I’m pro’ly going t’ fall asleep in th’ car.”

Ryan laughed, and she felt the vibrations through his chest. It did nothing to wake her up. “I have no doubt,” he said.

She was out by the time they made it to the driveway.

Ryan scooped her off her feet before she fell over and tucked her into the back seat of Talia’s car. It was a shame they had to take the old deathtrap, but Alejandro had already driven his and Aria’s car down to the beach the previous evening. It was useless trying to strap her in while she was lying there like that, so he pulled her head up onto his lap and held on tight. At least he was wide awake—he was usually sitting at work at this time of night, bored out of his mind of course, but well-rested from the day before. 

They made it to the beach one long, boring car ride later. Alejandro met them in the parking lot. The sky was starting to take on a slightly lighter tint, though it would still be about twenty minutes before the sun made it to the horizon. There were no streetlights to be seen. No artificial lights at all. He could see why Aria had picked this place—after making it over a slight ridge that ran parallel to the water as far as he could see, he couldn’t even tell that there had been a parking lot. Just a bit of fence, some tall and scruffy grass, a long stretch of sand, and water as far east as the eye could see. Actually, there was a small spit of land a bit to the north, but it was well away from where the sun would rise. That’s really all that mattered.

Hell of a lot nicer than his calling. His da had taken him to the roof of their apartment building the day after he’d turned eighteen. Oh well.

He turned away from the water and laid Aleda down on the blanket Aria had spread out on the sand.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Wake up. It’s almost dawn.”

She groaned and rolled to her side, stubbornly refusing to wake up just yet. He sat down next to her and shook her gently.

“If you wake up,” he said, “I’ll give you your birthday present.”

One eye opened cautiously. She was listening. He pulled a small box out of his pocket and set it on the ground a few inches from her face.

“Don’t you want to know what it is?”

Finally an armed snaked out and took a hold of the box, and she pulled herself up reluctantly into a sitting position. He hadn’t bothered to wrap it, knowing she’d be opening it on an empty beach with no trash cans. It was just a simple little brown box with the artisan’s logo on the lid. She slipped off the lid. Inside was a delicate silver pendant, the two lines of metal woven together into something that looked like a flame. She pulled it out and let it dangle from its chain, the metal almost glowing in the faint light. She looked back up at Ryan, her eyes sparkling

“Do you like it?” he asked.

She nodded as enthusiastically as she could, still halfway-asleep. “Is this why you were in Annapolis on Saturday?”

Ryan frowned. “How did you…” he trailed off, and groaned. “Talia told you.”

“She just said you were in Annapolis… getting my present.”

“Of course she did.”

“Well, I had to know why you missed my last training day, didn’t I?”

His face softened. “Okay, you’ve got a point. I know a custom jeweler down there that owed me a favor. Had him make this for you, special.” He touched the pendant hanging from her fingers. “It’s an old family sigil, although nobody remembers where it came from anymore. Should have seen the guy’s face when I told him I wanted it pure silver.”

Aleda thought about that for a few seconds. “Pure… isn’t that too soft, though? It’ll get all bent out of shape!”

He wiggled his fingers at her. “Don’t forget,” he said. “There’s other ways of giving something strength.”

She grinned. “Cool.”

Seth and Fioralba got there a few minutes later. Aleda had to get up, finally, and tried to act awake when she greeted them. Two men she didn’t recognize arrived soon after. They introduced themselves as Simón and Farouk, and Aleda realized they must be the new organizer and the boyfriend Talia had mentioned. She saw a few of the same people that had been at the Spring Equinox party that must have been local cousins that knew her parents one way or another. Even Zak and his wife showed up.

Damn, but it was getting crowded on that beach. So much for a nice, quiet calling.

Seth and Aunt Firi were alright, of course. She’d known them since she was a baby. But she didn’t even know all these other people. Sure, okay, they were hunters, so they were “cousins”, but that didn’t mean she had any idea about who they were or what they were like. It definitely didn’t mean she felt terribly comfortable around them. Too many strange people, and they were all watching her covertly, but with definite interest. Hell, she was nervous enough already. She looked at Ryan for support, but he just winked at her. Weird.

The sky was definitely lightening, now. It had gone from inky black to a deep, rich blue that painted the world in silhouettes and glowed against the few faint clouds that floated across the sky. She could finally make out the line between the ocean and the sky far off in the distance.

“Honey, it’s almost time.”

Aleda swallowed nervously and walked over to her parents, who were standing just past the line of wet sand that marked the reach of the waves. Now that she was off of the blanket, sand was getting into her sandals, so she kicked them off and tossed them back towards the nice large group of strangers.

“Mom…?”

“Relax, sweetheart. We’re right here with you,” Mom whispered in her ear. Papá put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “We’re so proud of you.”

Aleda looked at her parents, then at the people surrounding her. All of the cousins were watching her closely now, standing a respectful distance away. She swallowed hard. No pressure.

“I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be answering,” she admitted, hoping she’d said it quietly enough that nobody else could hear.

“You’ll know,” Mom assured her.

Aleda looked down at the necklace in her hand as they waited out the last few minutes before sunrise. It was beautiful. Simple, but beautiful. She ran her thumb over the delicate design, and then slipped the chain around her neck. She wanted this on when she answered. 

She looked over her shoulder. Jade eyes sparkled warmly back at her.

She was ready.

Her mother took her by the hand and had her kneel on the soft sand facing the horizon. She breathed in the fresh ocean air, focusing on the salty scent so she wouldn’t have to focus on her nerves. If she had been sleepy before, the sleepiness had vanished. Her whole body was humming, with anxiety or so she thought. She could feel the cold grains of sand below her knees, through the fabric of her skirt, and the soothingly rough texture of it as her bare toes dug into the sand behind her. She could feel the cool metal of the pendant against her skin, not yet warmed by her body’s heat but somehow still leaving her skin tingling in a way that reminded her of Ryan’s thumb brushing against her cheek all those months ago.

She could hear the sound of her father speaking to her, and feel the fire-laced touch as he placed his open hand on her back, directly over her heart. She tried to listen to what he was saying, but did not recognize the words. The connection was enough.

It was enough that even before the sun rose she could feel it coming. The world seemed to glow, like it did those few times with Ryan. It was more than a sense. She knew the sun was near, and her heart beat faster at the thought—not with fear, nor anxiety, but with excitement and joy. If such a thing were possible, she would have run out to meet it.

First light flared at the horizon and flooded into her.

It left her breathless. If she had been standing, her legs would have surely failed. In that one moment, with lightning arcing through her veins and sparking behind her eyes, she understood.

It was everything.

The sand at her feet, the air in her lungs, the sun burning brightly, the people by her side. Every one of them, and every part of them, were calling out to her as achingly as her soul had called out to the rising sun. Her heart did what her feet could not and reached out to them. All of them. This was the calling. This was the yearning to join with them and never be parted again.

No answer had ever been easier.

No sooner did she reach out to them in answer did she feel herself embraced, and enveloped, and unequivocally loved. No matter what happened in her life now, no matter what she did or what choices she made, she knew without a doubt that she would never be parted from them again. Never be lonely. Never be forgotten. Never be forsaken. She was as much a part of them as they were a part of her, and she could feel them all in her heart.

She opened her eyes, though she did not remember closing them, and realized she had been crying. She raised a trembling hand to her cheek to brush the tears away and gasped. Her hand, her plain, ordinary, if rather pale hand was glowing radiantly before her eyes. She moved it back in surprise and saw traces of the much paler light of the air flowing in and around it. The sand was sparkling all around her. The ocean, too—and her mouth dropped open when she realized that she could see the faint glowing spots from the fish swimming through the water. It was as if the world were sculpted out of light.

She turned to her parents, her eyes wide.

She could see them, and for the first time she truly understood what Talia had meant. It was not just the light flooding their veins, or the fire behind their eyes. She could see who they were, their very souls, because she was bound with them now, more surely than any paternal connection.

She could see Ryan without even turning her head.

He came to her, unable to keep himself away any longer, and the bond that connected them flared even brighter when he took her hand in his. She could count every pore on his face, every eyelash, every thread of color in his eyes. She could hear the steady beat of his heart, and smell the scent of leather and sweat and musky spice that only he possessed. The rest of her cousins were a friendly, warm bonfire of light waiting just a short distance away.

After a moment she noticed that Papá was looking at her new necklace, and frowning.

“Papá?” she asked. “What’s wrong?” Even though she could see him now, she could not fathom his thoughts.

“Your necklace, little angel,” he said. “Where did you get it?”

She looked down at the woven silver, which was glowing brightly even against her skin. “Ryan gave it to me, just now.”

Ryan had to bite his cheek. He hadn’t realized she would put it on so quickly. Okay, maybe he’d thought of it.

Papá touched the pendant. He knew immediately what had happened. He scowled at Ryan.

“You strengthened this, did you not?” he demanded.

Ryan shrugged, a cocky smirk threatening to spread across his face. “Just a little,” he conceded.

“What’s wrong with that?” Aleda asked.

Ryan looked at her and grinned. “It’s a hunter’s blood that sparks ye, lass,” he told her. “And your da was not the only one to do it, as he thought.”

“You—” She swallowed a laugh. “You mean, because you put your blood into this necklace…?”

“Aye. And I’m thinking he’s none too happy with me for it.”

“Not happy at all,” Papá grumbled, but he restrained himself from doing or saying anything else. It was his daughter’s calling. It was no time to be anything but joyful.

“Come on,” Ryan said. “I think you’ve got some new cousins waiting to welcome you.”

“They kind of already did,” Aleda pointed out. She walked with him across the sand, relishing the feel of it under her feet. Hell, even the breeze felt fantastic against her skin… though it would take some time to get used to seeing it move. “By the way,” she said. “Am I supposed to be this bloody hungry?”

“Actually, you are,” Ryan said. “Your whole body’s kind of getting re-hauled. Hey, Zadkiel! Get us a couple bottles out of that cooler, would you?”

“You got it, Ryan!” … Except it sounded like ‘Taranuel’. Aleda blinked.

“Uhm… Ryan?” she said, quietly. “What did he just call you?”

He caught the two bottles and handed one to her. It was milk, and she chugged it gratefully. “My proper name,” he said. “It’s something not even the hunterborn know.” He pointed to her great-grandfather. “He is called Veramien. And your aunt is called Firiolai.” Each time he named them, she also heard echoes of their normal names. The names she had heard since childhood.

Aleda frowned. “So… do I have a ‘proper name’, then?”

Ryan… or Taranuel… nodded. “Of course,” he said. “…You just have to figure out what it is.”

She glared at him in consternation.

One of her cousins, listening in, laughed at the exchange. “Don’t worry,” the cousin said. “You just kind of think about it, and you know.”

“So nobody names us?” Aleda asked.

The woman shook her head. “Nope. It’s just… who we are. The name fits the soul. Actually,” she confided. “I think mortals have proper names, too, only they don’t know it.”

You’ll learn, Simón told her.

Aleda turned and stared at him.

“Did you…?”

Yes.

“Okay, I swear to mercy you’re not speaking English.”

Of course it’s not English, Farouk chimed in. I don’t even speak English.

Pretty, though, ain’t it? Talia couldn’t help joining in the fun.

“Alright, enough,” Ryan said.

“What in the hell were they speaking!?” Aleda practically shouted. “I mean, I heard the words! But they weren’t English! …Except I understood all of it! I–… And they… All of it! It was just… just real. Everything they said, was…!”

“Shh, calm down,” Ryan said, rubbing her arms. “I know, it seems weird. It’s our language. And by ‘ours’, I mean…” he made a vaguely all-encompassing gesture. She understood what he meant.

She nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Weird. Weird is a good word for it.”

“You try it.”

“Me!?” she asked, her eyes wide. “But I don’t know the…”

“Remember the calling.”

She tried. It wasn’t about words, it was about being connected to everything. Everybody. Hard to be connected to somebody if you can’t understand them… except not understanding somebody, a cousin anyway, was not a problem she would ever have.

She tried.

“Don’t try so hard.”

She glared at Talia.

“You’re not going to force it into your head,” the little blonde told her. “It’s more like remembering an old habit.”

She tried not to try.

Do you remember that night you got really hurt? Ryan asked.

Of course. I was stabbed, and you healed me. It was the first time I really saw you.

Talia’s entire face broke out in a grin. “You did it!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands in her excitement.

“I…? Oh!” Aleda said. “Yeah! Yeah, I see what you mean! That was kind of cool, how come you don’t talk like that all the time?”

“Psht, mortals don’t understand it. And ‘speaking in tongues’ doesn’t do so good outside those crazy churches that think it means you’re talking nonsense.” Talia sniffed. “Besides, there’s kind of less of a gap between what you’re thinking and what you’re saying, if you catch my meaning, when we talk like that. Useful, sure, but hard to get all fun and colorful.”

Aleda thought about that for a few seconds. “Yeah,” she agreed. “I can kind of see that. Still weird, though.”

Talia laughed. “That’s for damned sure!”

Other cousins made their way over to her and offered their own bits of advice. Aleda heard everything from how to get citizenship in Mexico and Canada to a recipe for cream-based brownies. Some of them spoke to her in the language, letting her try it out and enjoying a new person with whom they could converse. By the time she made it to Great-Grandpa Seth she was getting comfortable enough to call out his proper name and greet him warmly, without even being prompted.

At the same time, she was also trying to figure out her own name. It flitted just beyond the tip of her tongue, much like the language once had those few times Ryan had dosed her strongly enough to notice it.

She felt him reaching out to her and went to his side, finding him easily despite the brilliant sea of souls around her.

“I can’t get it,” she told him morosely. “It’s right there, like I can almost remember, but I can’t. How did you figure yours out?”

“I knew it the second I looked at my da,” Ryan said. “Right after. I could see it in his eyes, of all places. It… it means ‘redemption’.”

Aleda nodded. She had understood that much of it, when he’d told her.

“He… he had lost everything,” Ryan continued, and his voice cracked. “He gave everything, and he lost it all again. He found me, and he raised me, and finally he gave me his own life. My existence is the redemption for all his painful years.”

Aleda felt tears pricking the back of her eyes, and she wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could. She could think of nothing to say. Nothing that would have been meaningful enough to say. So she just held onto him, and she felt him relax in her arms. His own hands came up to press against her back, and his lips turned up in a small smile.

And she knew.

“Elaiya,” she whispered. “I’m called Elaiya.”

Ryan’s smile spread even further and he looked down into her eyes. “Yes,” he said. “That’s it. You’re my joy.”

 

 

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Eventually, of course, they had to take it back to the house. It was late enough in the spring that people would soon be coming to enjoy the beach and, well, nobody was really supposed to be there at that hour. It was a bit odd, breaking up their makeshift party at the beach and driving for almost two hours to start back up again in Keeney. By the time they got back Aleda felt like she was dying of starvation. She inhaled the junk food Talia had so graciously donated with utmost gratitude.

Her body felt… weird, too. Muscles were twitching hyperactively, and she could swear she could feel her bones getting denser. And don’t get her started on the weird s**t that was happening to her fingers. Yeah, those were definitely getting denser. And… possibly more jointed? It didn’t hurt, but it was easily the most bizarre sensation she had ever experienced.

“I know what you mean about those scrubbing bubbles,” she said to Ryan over her second helping of fried chicken. “It feels… buzzy.”

“Oh, those are just your telomeres getting longer,” Talia said. They stared at her in shock. “I’ve been watching the Discovery Channel,” she explained cheerfully. “Fun stuff.” She walked back over to the table for her fourth round of chips.

“Okay,” Aleda announced. “I think I’m ready to lie on my bed and twitch awkwardly for a while. Without all these people around.”

“You don’t like being surrounded by cousins?” Ryan asked in surprise.

Aleda pointed through the wall at Farouk. “I can see him!” she said. “In the bathroom! It’s too much, right now. Later, maybe. But not right now. Not while I’m still so… twitchy!”

“Let ‘em stay a little longer,” he said. “At least until they’ve spent more time here than driving.”

“Well… okay, yes, you have a point,” Aleda admitted. “But if you don’t mind, I think I’ll just bury my face right here for a little while.” To illustrate her point, she curled up in his arms until all she could see was his light. Much, much better.

“Hey, kids,” Simón said, walking up to them and snapping shut a cell phone. Aleda groaned and pulled her face away from Ryan’s chest. “I hate to break up the party, but I just got off the phone with Meianiel.” Mike Connor.

“What did he want?” Ryan asked.

“Help, I’m afraid,” Simón answered. “I feel awful. It’s my fault, really. I mean, I knew there were a lot in the area, but I never realized…”

“Sanaman!” Ryan snapped. “What happened?”

Simón looked at him helplessly. “They’re overrun. There aren’t enough kilarin to keep the demons from having the run of the city, let alone kill them off.”

“What about the other organizers? There must be half a dozen sectors in that country!”

“They all have their own problems,” Simón explained. “They cannot spare anyone to help him. I’m going to ask Kelaio if he and his wife would be willing to go to him.”

“No.”

“You don’t think he would go?”

“His wife is pregnant. He’s not going anywhere.” Ryan shook his head. “No, I’ll go.”

“Oh, thank you,” Simón said gratefully. “I’ll arrange a plane ticket for tomorrow, it’s the soonest I can get it.” He flipped his cell phone open again and wandered off.

“What!?” Aleda cried out. “No! Ryan!”

He looked at her, his face remorseful but determined. “I’ve got more experience than everybody here,” he said, gesturing to their cousins. “Combined. I’m the one who sent him down there, into that mess. It’s my responsibility to get him out of it.”

Aleda felt herself close to crying again. “It’s my graduation tomorrow!” she protested. “It’s too soon! Ryan, you promised! You promised you wouldn’t ever leave me behind!”

“I’m sorry, Aleda,” he said. He bent down and kissed her. “I have to get back to the apartment. I have to pack. Talia!”

Aleda followed him around helplessly, in shock. It was too sudden to even process. He was leaving. He had promised, but he was leaving, and he hadn’t even said anything about when he might come back. He found his sister. She was surprised, too, but not as much as Aleda and she said goodbye to everyone without hesitation. Aleda followed them out to the car.

“Please. Please don’t go,” she begged him. “Please. Ryan?”

He shut his eyes in a pained expression.

“I’m so sorry, lass,” he said. “This is something I have to do. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He looked into her eyes and she could see the regret swimming through him. He kissed her one last time. “I love you.”

And he left.