When he came back to the world, he had no idea what time it was and he was a little disoriented. He could have been in some hotel room, or he could have been in the same room of his parent's house that he grew up in. His eyes slowly focused on the mirror black stone of his ceiling and the crystals that were quickly brightening there. Nodding his head he rolled over and buried himself in the soft furs, trying to regain sleep.
It was a lost cause. After fifteen minutes, he irritably threw his furs off to one said and rolled out of bed into the cool air of the stone room around him. He dressed himself and made his morning march to the bathroom a few buildings away. He took a nice long hot shower this morning. He let the warm water run over his still tired body. The warmth reminded him of Keva, and that reminded him of what Aceso had lectured him on. Of course, all of that culminated into those brown eyes that he had half dreamed of before he fell asleep.
He got out of the shower and brushed his teeth and walked out of the bathroom. He stopped and glanced over at the Tower that commanded the city scape around him. He wondered if Chelsea was OK. If she had survived, and if so, where was she? He also had a nagging question that he had never asked anyone before and even if he had he doubted that he would have been given a reasonable answer anyway. Was the Tower the same for everyone? Saying a silent prayer for the girl's survival he turned around and walked back to his room.
He wasn't all that surprised to see his alpha waiting for him. He nodded to her as she stood silently in the middle of the room. Aceso watched him as he made his way to his dresser and put away his toiletry items and reached down to another drawer to pull out a t-shirt. Aceso said quietly to him, “We have been summoned to meet with the Elders.”
William stood up with the shirt still in his hand. He turned around slowly to look his alpha in the eyes. He couldn't stop the images of a dead twenty one year old girl with shoulder length chestnut brown hair from invading his mind. He shook his head, “She isn't...she hasn't...?”
Aceso shook her head, “No, the girl is still in the Tower, no one knows exactly where she is but we know that she is still alive.”
William heaved a sigh of relief. Saying a thankful prayer to whoever might be listening. William focused on Aceso once more, “OK, so if Chelsea is still in the Tower, I assume we’re not going to meet the Elders in the Tower, so where do they want to see us?”
“We are going to meet with them...”
“Wait a minute,” William interrupted, “What could they possibly want with us anyway?” William shook his head, “I mean we just got back from kidnapping a helpless girl who was completely unprepared for our world and we probably sent her to her death.” William's tone increased as he started pacing around the room with more energy and anger, “What do they want us to do now, go kill someone? They probably want us to,” He raised his hands up above his head making exaggerated quoting signs, “take care of,” he dropped his hands down to his sides again, “Kenneth. But hey, why stop there? They might as well send us off to assassinate the president or go to Russia and assassinate the premier and frame the American government for it. Hell, why not just start a nuclear war and after everything's all over we can rise up and take over the planet.”
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Aceso listened to his tirade quietly, “Are you finished?”
William shot her a nasty look. He knew that the Elders were nothing at all like that and he had to wonder where all that anger had come from. It was probably a combination of him being tired and the memory of what being summoned by the Elders had meant the last time, three days ago. William took a deep breath and pulled his shirt over his head. He tried to relax himself but the feeling of still being tired, even after a shower, and being angry still covered him like a fine film making him feel scuzzy and dirty. “Do you have any idea what they want?”
Aceso shook her head, “The only thing I know is that we have been called, and we will go.” Aceso moved to the open doorway, “Meet us at the base of the Tower, quickly.” With that Aceso moved out the door and she was gone.
William felt a little empty now that she had gone. He felt a little better knowing that Chelsea hadn't died but that hardly meant that she would survive either. He had almost died in there once or twice and he had been living in his forest for a year and half before he went in there. Chelsea was coming in right off of living a life of dancing at night and doing god knows what after that, drugs, sex, sleeping in till noon or later, or... he had no idea. And just making those assumptions about her wasn’t fair either. Chelsea was at least a toned dancer and that was something, not much, but something that he could rest some hope on for her continued survival in that hell.
What he really wanted to know was what the Elders could possibly want with him and his pack, so soon after coming back from their last assignment. What could they possibly ask them to do? Ansuya had said that it was unusual to send out an incomplete pack and they definitely were still not whole. The loss of Achelois was always present, at least in his mind. He knew that Aceso carried the weight of that loss with her too. But that still left the question of what did the Elders want? He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head sending his still damp shoulder length hair everywhere. The only way to find out was to go and find out.
William made his way down to the street and walked toward the monolithic Tower. He couldn't help he eyes from tracing up and down the smooth black obsidian of the structure. Chelsea was somewhere in there and she was still alive, for now at least. He ripped his eyes away from the black stone and searched ahead of him for his pack.
He saw Charles, Kathrine and Aceso standing together. He didn't see Nicolas anywhere though, and of course there was no sign of the Elders. William walked up to the group and stood with his arms crossed looking at the other members of his pack, not saying anything. They didn't say anything either. Aceso was the only one who looked anywhere near interested in what might be going on around them. The rest of his pack mates were lost in their own thoughts and he was welcome to let them contemplate what they would on their own. He didn't feel like talking much this morning anyway.