Page 65 of Aleko
“Of course there are limitations. You’re changing the world, but you can’t change people.”
“Then what the fuck is the point?” snarled Lia, in weary anger.
“Watch your tongue,” snapped the elf. “Physical changes are easy to make. A mere rearrangement of the matter of the universe. But to change the spirit of a person—the heart, will, and consciousness—is a far different matter. The wand is a tool. It won’t make you a god.”
“I don’t want to be a god,” said Lia. “I just wanted to be happy.”
“Happiness is overrated. Only children want for such things. Adults know that they must take the reins of their own destiny. Now, you have much to learn, but I will teach as you take the wand back to my people.”
The elf placed her hands behind her back and began to pace, clearly about to continue with her lecture.
“I wish,” said Lia, and the ghost turned back to Lia in surprise, “that you were gone.”
There was a gust of wind, and the woman dissipated like a swarm of ghostly fireflies. The last to go was her face which held an expression of angry shock.
“No more ghosts,” said Lia and shivered again as the wind picked up.
Episode 34
The Spell
Alex
Alex watched as Yazmin walked slowly and carefully around the circle of his packmates carrying the bowl. He recognized it as a bowl he had acquired in an art auction. It was a bright turquoise pottery thing that was painted with black lines to look like lotus blossoms. The appraiser had said it was a style called faience. Yazmin said it was a lovely example of early New Kingdom pottery.
Hudson cut his arm and held it tight to get as much blood in the bowl as possible. The blood looked nearly black over the blue glaze. Hudson handed the knife to Killian, who chose his palm. Sebastian cut lengthwise down his forearm. Their cuts closed quickly but the amount of blood in the bowl still seemed like a lot. None of them had skimped.
Alex’s shoulder still hurt where the needle had gone in. He wasn’t sure if that was normal, but at least it felt like something was having an effect.
Yazmin approached with the bowl, and Alex realized how much he appreciated her keeping them on task. She was doing all the remembering for them. There was no way he could keep anything in his head right now.
“I will hold the bowl until you’re ready for it,” she said quietly. Alex nodded and knelt down on the floor next to Pellos. They had removed the oxygen tube because it would stretch to the floor, but they had left everything else attached. Alex wasn’t sure how long they had until the hospital staff got alerts about their equipment being disturbed. He’d tried to plan in advance where he was going to bite Pellos. Sebastian had voted for the arm.Killian offered nothing. Hudson had voted for the neck, but it felt vampirish to Alex. Yazmin had said she thought it had to be an open wound to get the blood into it. So he’d decided on the shoulder. It was solid muscle, away from his other injuries, but reasonably close to the heart, so hopefully, the blood would circulate faster. Alex didn’t know if that mattered, but Yazmin and Hudson thought it was a good idea.
Alex took a moment to concentrate and shifted just his head. He would need his hands for the bowl and shifting fully back and forth would take too long. The world took on a gray hue, but the smells pinwheeled across his brain like Fourth of July fireworks in blazing technicolor. The antiseptic soap the nurses used on Pellos’s wounds made him want to gag, but the weird mixture of blood in the bowl Yazmin held was strangely steadying. It was all his favorite people all in one spot.
Except Eliandra.
He wrenched his mind away from her and focused on Pellos. He only wanted to do this once—he didn’t want to have to bite a second time. Opening his mouth, he placed his jaws around the shoulder and steadied himself. Trying to apply only the force he needed, he bit down and pulled back, tearing the flesh. He withdrew and saw that there was now a large flap of muscle and skin that hung open.
Alex reached for the bowl—Yazmin handed it over carefully but quickly. Sliding one hand under Pellos’s body Alex lifted Pellos carefully poured the blood into the open wound. It seemed like a lot of blood and Alex thought it would spill over, but each time the blood seemed close to the edge of the bite the wound absorbed the excess. Gently and steadily, Alex poured the entire contents of the bowl into the gaping hole he had put in his son.
When the bowl was empty, he looked up at Yazmin. He couldn’t remember what he was supposed to do next.
“You have to change back to say the words,” she whispered, like a teacher prompting her grade school students through a performance.
He shook his head and felt his muzzle retreat. When he was human again, he looked at the others. Speaking in unison, they finished the incantation.
“Vita mutatur,
Non tollitur.”
Life is changed, not taken away.
It was a nice sentiment, and Alex prayed it would be true, but at the moment Alex thought he might throw up. He could still taste Pellos’s blood in his mouth.
Then Pellos stopped breathing. Alex looked in panic around the circle of the pack—they were all staring intently at Pellos.
There was a ragged gasp as Pellos started breathing again and then his eyes snapped open.
