The next morning, William got up and got dressed. He took care of what needed to be done and went to the cafeteria. He didn’t feel hungry, but he had no idea what was going to happen. While he ate, his mind kept turning over what had been said yesterday. The Whyte Plain and those shadows had been created by shape shifter sages. It made sense. But since they could enter and leave the Whyte Plain whenever they wished, why couldn’t the shadows do the same? What was keeping them in the Whyte Plain? Was it possible that they could enter into the outside world at anytime? If that was true, they would have already done that. But still, that didn’t explain why the werewolf shape shifters were getting fewer and fewer in number. The lack of a population in the city could not be explained by raids into the Whyte Plain. Could they be hunted by something else? Huan Li had told him once that vampires were in fact real. The Elder also told him that he had bigger things to worry about than them. Back then, the constant threat of death hung over his head, but what about now? If they went outside was it possible that they could run into something that they really couldn’t handle? Would he be able to protect his pack? The more he thought about it the more it just ate away at him. He couldn’t do anything about it right now, anyway. He finished his eggs and sausages and headed out toward the Tower.
Once there he met up with Charles and Katherine. Soon Aceso walked up escorting Nicolas, in his human form, and he still looked tired. He was wearing his pants and a wife beater underneath an open button down shirt. William arched an eyebrow at his pack mates fashion sense.
This was not lost on Nicolas who said irritably, “You got a problem with my clothes, dude?”
William shrugged and looked away, not wanting to get into any kind of fight this morning. He had enough on his mind.
It wasn’t long before Ansuya approached the group. She was wearing a starkly simple black, form fitting business suit. It hugged at her body in sensual ways even though it was very conservative. The word ‘power dress’ came to mind. Ansuya looked like the CEO of a multinational conglomeration. The jacket was buttoned up and had a conservative neck line. The jacket could have been the only thing she was wearing, because no other fabric was visible on her torso. She wore long pants that flared out a little at the bottom revealing her simple two-inch heeled shoes. William wondered how she was planned on traveling on foot out of the mountain in those, then he remembered that every other shape shifter under the mountain, it seemed, was able to shift from werewolf form and back to human born form without tearing their clothes up. He wondered if he was ever going to be blessed with that unique wardrobe addition. Alexiares towered over her and was silent as they approached the group.
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Ansuya passed her gaze over the pack. Her eyes rested for a moment on William before finally settling on Nicolas. “Are you ready Nicolas to guide us toward what you saw?”
Nicolas reached up and scratched at the back of his neck. “Well I, uh…you see the thing is, uh…I have no idea where we might be going.”
William let his eyes roll up toward the cavern ceiling above him but Ansuya remained unperturbed by Nicolas’s seeming uncooperativeness. She leveled her gaze at Nicolas, “Nicolas. Look at me.”
The scout lifted his head reluctantly. When his eyes finally met hers, his head hung suspended in midair. William watched as Nicolas seemed to be frozen. He was still breathing but he wasn’t taking his eyes off of Ansuya.
The Elder Tracker spoke in melodious, even tones, that struck William hard. “Nicolas, breathe for me and relax. Feel the patterns that were shown to you yesterday. Look at me and relax. Let the rest of the world fall away, just breathe and focus on the patterns in your mind. You want to lead me to what you saw, don’t you?” Nicolas nodded his head mechanically. “Then breathe and relax. Settle yourself into those patterns. Let your lunar gift guide you to where you have already been. Breathe and focus, Nicolas.”
William watched as Nicolas seemed to relax standing up. His eyes were glazed over so bad he might have had cataracts. Nicolas breathed deeply and just stood there for long moments. Ansuya’s gaze never left the scout. She bored into him with her eyes as a small smile played out on her lips. Was she enjoying having this kind of power over Nicolas? Ansuya had never struck him as someone who was exactly approachable, but she had never scared him either. Ansuya was every bit as dangerous as Derceto. He would have to watch himself around her from now on.
Moments later Ansuya demanded, “Where are we going, Nicolas?”
Answering in a subdued voice, like it was coming from someone else, he said, “We have to go to L.A. Somewhere on the east side, near Fullerton.”
Ansuya nodded and shifted her gaze to Aceso. “I was hoping that we wouldn’t need to go that far out, but these things don’t happen according to our convenience.”
Nicolas seemed to be coming back from wherever he had gone and he was shaking his head and blinking his eyes hard.
The Elder ignored Nicolas. “To go that far we must enter the Whyte Plain, which means we must exit the city.” She glanced up at the Tower standing behind her. “However, first we must make you all ready for what this trip will bring.”
As if on cue Derceto walked out the door leading to the Elder’s chamber at the top of the Tower and strode down the exterior ramp. Moments later she joined the seven of them on the street. Ansuya bowed her head towards the wolf born sage. Derceto glanced over at Katherine. “I expect you to watch how this is done. I will not be showing you how to do it twice.”